How far does the 2050 Vision suit Middle East air transport business and industry? Amirah Ibrahim interviewed IATA ME director over the region's sustainable future The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced international scheduled traffic statistics for May which showed an 11.7 per cent increase in passenger traffic and a 34.3 per cent jump in freight demand compared to May 2009. "Middle Eastern carriers recorded a 17.5 per cent growth in May. The region's carriers continue to post strong growth with connecting traffic through their hubs, although the pace of growth has dropped from the 20 per cent increases recorded earlier in the year," stated , IATA Middle East and Africa manager. As for African carriers, Sabri went on, they reported a demand increase of 16.9 per cent as the region's carriers benefit from growing economies and more success in maintaining market share. At the same time, the region's load factor was the weakest at 66.5 per cent. Air freight growth in the Middle East reached 38.6 per cent. "Airlines need to focus their efforts on promoting the recovery by continuing to match capacity carefully to improving demand conditions. Airports, air navigation service providers, global distribution systems and labor must share the responsibility of controlling costs." In its recent Annual General Meeting, IATA announced Vision 2050 as an initiative to build a common vision for the air transport industry. The vision, pointed to four cornerstones of change: a new and sustainable energy source, a regulatory regime that allows airlines to operate as normal businesses, cost-efficient infrastructure that meets the needs of users, and services that exceed customer expectations. One of those cornerstones created controversy. "Governments should take their hands off the air transport industry and stop making unnecessary trouble. It is not acceptable that governments impose new and crippling fees and taxes," descried Sabri. "The vision calls on governments to allow airlines to operate as normal businesses not as underage teens that cannot make the right decisions and choices for themselves," Sabri commented. "If we look into the past decade we can see an industry that was losing five billion dollars a year with 574 airlines entering the business. Despite losses, less than 200 airlines disappeared." According to Sabri, airlines face tough challenges with regulations which make low barriers for entry but too high barriers for exit. "Many governments still apply 'nationality' restrictions on their carrier when merging with others. They adopt laws that ban non nationals from possessing more than 49 per cent of stake shares in the carriers. This resulted in having 1061 airlines all over the world that fight with each other to survive at each shock. Those barriers must be removed to allow airlines to build efficiency across borders to serve the customer in a better way," he explained. Sabri praised the trend by seven governments to adopt an 'agenda for freedom'. "The UAE government joined first followed by four Arab governments: Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon and Kuwait. We see this agreement as vital and necessary to sustain the future of air transport in the region." Agenda for freedom calls on governments to remove nationality restrictions and stop using bilateral agreements to ban other airlines from operation within their markets. "Governments should deal with air transport in the same way it deals with telecommunications. They permit more than one company to provide communication services such as IT, cellular services, etc. Only the consumers judge whether they need this provider or that one according to the quality of service." "Bilateral agreements on the other hand are outdated and should be ended. We have more than 3500 bilateral agreements that regulate flying among countries. This should be replaced by open skies agreements that demolish such barriers," Sabri indicated. Sabri criticised governments for not supporting the industry during the tough times of fuel prices increases and disputes with environmental groups. "Air transport is responsible of 2 per cent of CO2 pollution, yet it has been extensively targeted as if it was the only one guilty. We moved even before governments to adopt green flying technologies, investing in bio-fuel research and solar aircraft projects which have achieved significant progress. However, environmental groups, misled by governmental propaganda, still restrict the business. Gatwick airport was drawn into 10 years of negotiations with green groups to add a new runway and allow its expansion plans and this year was unsuccessful in its plans." Sabri regretted the trend by a number of European governments to impose new taxes on air transport to help fight CO2 pollution which has added to the industry's troubles.
