Tag Archives: IATA

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) called for governments to work with the industry on confidence-boosting measures in the face of an anticipated slow recovery in demand for air travel. “Passenger confidence will suffer a double whammy even after the pandemic is contained—hit by personal economic concerns in the face of a looming recession on top of lingering concerns about the safety of travel. Governments and industry must be quick and coordinated with confidence-boosting measures,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO. An IATA-commissioned survey of recent travelers found that 6 per cent anticipate a return to travel within one to two months of containment of the COVID-19 pandemic but 40 per cent indicate that they could wait six months or more; and 69 per cent indicated that they could delay a return to travel until their personal financial situation stabilises. Early indications of this cautious return-to-travel behaviour are seen in the domestic markets of China and Australia, where new coronavirus infection rates have fallen to very low levels: China- Domestic demand began to recover when the rate of new COVID-19 infections in China fell into single digits and rapidly headed towards zero (measured by new infections as a percentage of the seven-day moving average of total COVID-19 cases). While there was an early upswing from mid-February into the first week of March, the number of domestic flights plateaued at just over 40 per cent of pre-COVID-19 levels. Actual demand is expected to be significantly weaker as load factors on these flights are reported to be low. China accounts for some 24 per cent of all domestic passengers. Australia- Domestic demand continued to deteriorate even after the rate …

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) urged G20 leaders to act quickly to support the aviation industry in order to prevent irrecoverable damage to international connectivity arising from the impact of COVID-19. In an open letter to the G20 Presidency, Alexandre de Juniac Director General and CEO, IATA emphasised the essential role that air transport will play in facilitating the recovery of the global economy. Noting that the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting government-mandated border closings and travel restrictions have led to the destruction of global air travel demand, de Juniac made a plea to governments to urgently provide, or facilitate the provision of financial support. He noted that some G20 members already have acted, including Australia, Brazil and China. De Juniac also pointed out that without the global connectivity provided by aviation, sustaining global supply chains, as well as developing country industries such as perishable horticulture and tourism would be impossible. By value, 35 per cent of international trade flown by air, 57 per cent of international tourists travel by air and each airline job contributes to 24 more in the wider economy.

oneworld, SkyTeam and Star Alliance are jointly calling on governments and stakeholders to take action to alleviate the unprecedented challenges faced by the global airline industry amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The three global alliances, which represent almost 60 airlines around the world that contribute more than half of global airline capacity, are strongly supporting a request by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for regulators to suspend slot usage rules for the northern summer 2020 season as the airline industry suffers from extraordinary reductions in passenger demand. Rob Gurney, CEO, oneworld, said, “During such times of difficulty and uncertainty, it is important that the airline industry works even closer with stakeholders to mitigate adverse impacts from the virus and collaborate in areas within our control. Governments must implement the measures they consider necessary to contain the spread of COVID-19, and must be prepared for the widescale economic implications that will result from those measures.” Kristin Colvile, CEO and Managing Director, SkyTeam, said, “The human and financial impact that the COVID-19 outbreak is having on the aviation industry is unprecedented. We are urging all involved institutions and industry stakeholders to face these extraordinary times with exceptional measures. This includes action such as slot relief, airport and overflight fees reduction. Jeffrey Goh, CEO, Star Alliance, said, “The unprecedented circumstances triggered by the coronavirus outbreak pose an existential threat not only to the airline industry but more generally to global trade and commerce, and social connectivity. As airlines stretch their limits to manage the crisis, it is equally critical for governments and stakeholders to avoid further burdens and step up with measures, as some have, that will ensure the future of the travel …

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) welcomed the announcement by the European Commission (EC) granting the temporary suspension until June 2020 of the 80-20 ‘use it or lose it’ rule for airport slots. The decision reflects the unprecedented situation facing the airline industry. However, granting the suspension only until June is the very minimum the industry needs, and a decision on a full suspension until October will be needed within the next month to allow airlines to plan their schedules. The COVID-19 virus has caused a collapse in global air travel demand. Owing to the requirement to continue to operate an airport slot for at least 80 per cent of the time, airlines have been unable to respond by adjusting their capacity. The suspension of the slot use rules until June will allow airlines to begin putting in place measures to cope with the unprecedented fall in traffic, but it is a shorter period than airlines had requested. Airlines need the suspension to be extended to cover the whole season (to October), as other regulators worldwide have already agreed. The EC will therefore need to review the extension request by April 15. “The collapse in demand is unprecedented. And airlines are struggling to match capacity to the fast-changing situation. The commission’s decision to suspend slot use rules until June means that airlines can make these critical decisions immediately—without worrying about the impact on future availability of slots. However, given all the uncertainties, it is disappointing that the decision does not cover the full season. Airlines are implementing emergency measures under severe cashflow conditions. Along with relaxing slot rules, governments must also consider other forms of emergency relief,” said Rafael Schvartzman, …

Cebu Pacific (CEB) joins the International Air Transportation Association (IATA), the trade association for the global airline industry. CEB is IATA’s largest member among Philippine carriers, comprising 44 per cent of total domestic passenger volume and 46 per cent of total domestic cargo, based on data from the Philippines’ Civil Aeronautics Board. IATA leads and serves the airline industry representing over 290 member-airlines from 117 countries, representing 82 per cent of global air traffic. Cebu Pacific achieved full compliance with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Operational Safety Audit (IOSA), joining a registry of 437 carriers worldwide that have strictly complied with an internationally-recognised and accepted evaluation system designed to assess the operational management and control systems of an airline. Cebu Pacific was named the ‘Most Improved Airline’ for 2020 by airline safety and product review website airlineratings.com, citing the carrier’s commitment to ‘expand its global footprint using new generation fuel-efficient aircraft.’

Global Investment in Aviation Summit 2019 is all set to take place from January 27-29, 2018 at the Intercontinental Dubai Festival City with brainstorming on challenges and investment in aviation being the core objectives. The required modernisation of aviation infrastructure expansion, development, and modernisation to cater to anticipated increase in passenger and freight air traffic demand will reach USD 1.8 trillion by 2030. GIAS 2019 is an initiative of the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), which was established to create a leading, safe, secure and sustainable civil aviation system in the country. According to a report published by the International Air Transport Authority (IATA), global aviation will have to cater to over 14 trillion passenger traffic and 466 billion tonnes of freight traffic by 2034. This projection will show an increase of 14.5 per cent RPK and 4.2 per cent FTK, per annum respectively. The projected growth in global aviation industry will generate at least 99 million jobs and will contribute USD 5.9 trillion in GDP, a 122 per cent increase from 2014, according to the same IATA report. The UAE is investing substantially in upgrading the aviation infrastructure. HE Saif Mohammed Al Suwaidi, Director General, UAE General Civil Aviation Authority, said, “Aviation has been an important part of the UAE’s economic growth. One of the nation’s vigorous strength is its rapidly-expanding infrastructure, with spending of USD23.16 billion, including USD8 billion for expansion of Al Maktoum International Airport, USD7.6 billion for Phase IV development of Dubai International Airport, and USD 6.8 billion for expansion of Abu Dhabi International Airport. Collectively, the UAE increases its fleet per month by approximately 4-5 per cent and the total number of aircraft will …

Travelport has become the first GDS operator to manage the live booking of flights using the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) New Distribution Capability (NDC) technical standard. The first transaction was made by a British agency, Meon Valley Travel, on October 19 for a short-haul low-cost flight from London to Milan issued by a major European carrier. The new capability allows bookings to be made for any services on the airline without incurring a surcharge. Travelport’s new NDC capability is enabled using similar XML connections to those Travelport already deploys with APIs for over 20 low-cost carriers. The company published a roadmap for its initial range of NDC products in February, having been the first GDS operator in December 2017 to acquire Level 3 certification from IATA as an aggregator. It will also be followed by a series of product enhancements, including a version for online agents in 2019. Gordon Wilson, President and CEO, Travelport, said: “We are delighted to have taken a lead in bringing the NDC era to life. It has required an extraordinary amount of skill and expertise to make this happen and I want to thank my own colleagues at Travelport as well as our partners. We are still at the earliest stages of NDC deployment. Its evolution will continue to take time as we learn from the practical experience of its first use. Meanwhile, we continue to offer a comprehensive global travel commerce platform capable of handling mass volumes of searchable and bookable content at speed for the world’s travel providers and agents.”

Amadeus has said that it is the first to receive level-3 certification on the latest version (18.1) of  New Distribution Capability (NDC) standard. Since 2016, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has had a certification process in place for the NDC standard, for the different industry stakeholders to show their capability to support NDC messaging. Amadeus has now renewed its level 3 certification for Altéa NDC, which was released in March this year. The version 18.1 is generated based on the new aviation industry data model, which IATA has been working on with Amadeus and other industry partners. This new data model aims to provide a consistent industry repository and methodology to help define the use and structure of new and existing standards. “We’ve been working hand in hand with IATA and other industry partners to test and improve this latest version of the standard, which will help to drive industrialization and adoption. Version 18.1 and the new data model means that NDC messages between airlines and third parties – whether aggregators, travel sellers or corporations – now have a more defined structure. We’re pleased to be the first company to be certified on the 18.1 version, as proof of our ongoing partnership with IATA and our commitment to making NDC work for the industry,” said Gianni Pisanello, VP, NDC-X programme, Amadeus. This certification as an IT provider follows on from Amadeus’ previous level 3 certification as an IT provider and level 1 certification as an aggregator in 2016 and 2017. Amadeus is also on track to achieve level 3 certification as an aggregator later this year.

The first edition of the Travel Tech ME Congress concluded at Marriot Al Jaddaf in Dubai, UAE. The event gathered 100 technology experts, travel agents, airline operators and airport officials to provide a forum of exchange on the current technologies in tourism. Organised by Verve Management, the two-day congress started with Diego Lofeudo, Director of Business Unit, Corporate, Yas Marina Circuit, UAE who made the official welcome address. Conference Chairman, Albert Fernando, COO, Travelwings opened day two of Travel Tech ME Congress, where he said, “A great initiative for Verve Management, that has helped tourism stakeholders better understand and share future trends in travel technology. The industry looks forward to the congress next year, bringing in even more experts in travel technology.”Several presentations over two days shed light on the latest innovations happening across the world in terms of travel and tourism. Albert Dias, Co-founder & CTO, Musafir discussed the importance of sub-second search speed and its effect on a travelers’ decision-making process.Juan Iván Martín, Head of Innovation, FDS, from IATA discussed travel blockchain, the introduction of the IATA coin as payment methods and how hackathons such as the IATA-NDC Hackathon-2016 in Dubai have helped the airline industry as well as the hotel and travel industries by introducing innovative ideas, and applications that have been implemented and increased revenue in the travel and tourism industry in the region. From blockchain, IATA coins being implemented, disruption, the importance of sub-second search speed, web technologies challenging today’s relevance and the future existence of mobile apps. The two-day conference was concluded with a panel discussion of the lessons learned and the way forward, on the evolution in the hotel distribution system.

Despite sluggish global economic growth, the UAE will lead Middle East passenger growth in 2017 with an annual increase of more than 6.3 per cent, according to estimates from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Middle East carriers have reported the strongest annual traffic growth of any region globally for the fifth year running in 2016, according to the IATA. RPKs (revenue passenger kilometres) grew 11.8 per cent consolidating the region’s position as the third-largest market for global passengers. Capacity growth of 13.7 per cent outstripped demand however, driving down the average load factor by 1.3 percentage points to 74.7 per cent. With a number of aviation mega-projects underway across the GCC and wider Middle East, airports are expanding slightly ahead of the curve in demand, with capacity in 2016 increasing by 13.9 per cent and a forecast for 2017 of 10.1 per cent.