IATA-Etihad partnership The International Air Transport Association (IATA) Training and Development Institute and Etihad Airways, the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates, announced a training partnership during the proceedings of the IATA-AACO Aeropolitical Affairs Forum in Abu Dhabi in a joint effort to develop the human capital of the aviation industry in the region. This training partnership will start with the implementation of the Airline Customer Service programme and will extend afterwards to other fields in aviation, cargo, travel and tourism. The partnership will also aim at upgrading the leadership competencies of various industry resources by introducing the IATA-Harvard Leadership & Management training programme in collaboration with Harvard Business School Publishing. "The United Arab Emirates is expecting to handle 86.6 million international passengers by 2015, an 8.5 per cent average annual growth. If that materialises, in 2015 it will handle nearly 30 million more passengers than in 2010. Skills and knowledge will be critical to support this extraordinary growth," said Tony Tyler, IATA's director general and CEO. "We are delighted to be involved in this partnership as there is no more important resource for any organisation than its people," said James Hogan, Etihad Airways president and chief executive officer. "This joint initiative should help provide access to opportunities as we build a talent pool across all facets of the aviation industry, and provide a career path for appropriately trained professionals." IATA's partnership with Etihad Airways in the training field falls within a shared vision of reaching out to the next generation of leaders in the aviation industry as well as the overall development of the human capital to fullfil the need for new talent and skills to meet the challenges and opportunities in a dynamic industry. Lufthansa suspends biofuel tests Lufthansa has stopped testing biofuel in its aircraft because it has exhausted its stocks of biosynthetic kerosene and no other reliable supplies are available. The final test flight was a long-haul service to the US. Airbus beats Boeing European plane maker Airbus said Tuesday that it outgunned American rival Boeing in 2011, winning a two-thirds market share with a record number of aircraft orders. Airbus delivered a record 534 planes, beating Boeing for the ninth consecutive year. In 2011, it won a record 1,419 orders while the company's great rival Boeing won 805 new orders, giving Airbus 64 per cent of the market, said the firm's commercial director John Leahy. Airbus received new orders for 19 A380 superjumbos last year after 10 cancellations, and 26 were delivered compared with 18 in 2010, Tom Enders, the chief executive of Airbus parent company EADS, told reporters. "A380 is in serious production. For us after all the troubles, 2011 was the first real serious production year for the A380," he said. Leahy said the firm was unlikely to maintain its level of dominance. "It isn't our goal to end up where Boeing was in 1995 with 81 per cent of the market. Our goal remains to stay in a stable duopoly between 40 and 60 per cent of the market," he told reporters. Leahy said market share would likely return to the 50 per cent mark in 2012, as Boeing readies its new fuel-efficient 737 MAX for delivery in 2017. Airbus had a total of 4,437 orders on its books at the end of December �ê" an industry record �ê" worth some $588 billion. The company would work through its order book foreseeing 600 to 650 new orders this year, Enders said, adding deliveries were expected to increase to 570 in 2012. Airbus won 1,226 orders last year for the new plane, which will be delivered from 2015, and 1,256 orders in total since the programme took off in December 2010. The value of Airbus 2011 orders amounted to $140.5 billion, or 54 per cent of the global market. Airbus has higher production costs than Boeing and has splashed out more in research and development, notably for the NEO. Meanwhile, the timetable for Airbus' A350 long haul passenger jet is on schedule, senior director Fabrice Bregier said, insisting there was no need to rush. "We don't relax the pressure on the team... but when we believe we are not mature enough, when we believe there are still risks which could have effects on the next step �ê" we have the A380 experience we have paid the consequences for �ê" we prefer to stop and fix (it)," he said. Demand for planes will continue to grow given that passenger numbers tend to double on average every 15 years, he said. "It was a tough year for the world economy but traffic has grown by six per cent," he said. EADS also plans to hire 9,000 people in 2012, of which 4,000 would be on temporary contracts, Gallois told reporters. That compares with more than 5,000 last year.
