International airlines sell tickets in many different countries and currencies, even in places where they do not have their own operations. They also incur operating expenses in the currencies of the countries they serve, and buy capital equipment from the major aerospace exporting countries such as the US, Canada, UK, France, Brazil and Germany.It would be impossible for there to be a perfect match in both amounts and timing of foreign currency receipts and expenses. An airline may achieve some sort of balance over the year as a whole in receipts and expenses in a certain currency, but there will be weeks and months of surpluses followed by periods of shortfall. This can be managed by borrowing and lending in this one currency, and thus not involving conversion into another currency or any exchange risk. But net surpluses in a foreign currency would have to be exchanged into the local currency, which is the currency in which most costs are incurred and ultimately any profits would be retained or distributed. Here, there will be a time lag between income and expenditure which involves a risk of a movement in the exchange rate, and therefore a foreign exchange loss or gain. An airline's treasury has the task of managing revenues, expenditures, assets and liabilities in both local and foreign currencies, and thus minimising the risks of exposure to large currency movements.Since the late 1960s, the exchange rates of currencies have floated with respect to other major currencies, subject to central bank intervention, in the pursuit of economic and monetary goals. Some currencies are pegged to the major currencies, such as the US dollar, or a basket of the currencies of their major trading partners. Some countries do not manage their exchange rates as a policy objective, leaving them to float freely.The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) estimates of the importance of the various currencies in global foreign exchange market trading: the US dollar accounted for 45 per cent of daily turnover in April 1989, falling only slightly to 44.5 per cent in April 2004. The second most important currency is the Euro with just under 19 per cent, followed by the Japanese Yen with around 10 per cent and the UK pound with 8.5 per cent. The UK pound has increased somewhat in importance (up from 7.5 per cent in 1989) while the Yen has fallen from 14.5 per cent.
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