By Olamilekan FAWAS
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has urged countries to find sustainable solution to the infrastructure needed to meet growing demand for connectivity.
IATA’s Director General, Mr. Alexandre de Juniac, made the call while speaking at the 74th IATA Annual General Meeting (AGM) and World Air Transport Summit in Sydney, Australia.
de Juniac’s speech was released on the IATA website on Monday. He said: “We are in a capacity crisis. And we don’t see the required airport infrastructure investment to solve it. Governments struggle to build quickly.
“But with cash-strapped finances, many are looking to the private sector for solutions. We need more airport capacity. But be cautious. Expecting privatisation to be the magic solution is a wrong assumption.’’
According to him, the privatisation of airport infrastructure has not lived up to airline expectations.
“As customers of many airports in private hands, airlines have far too many bitter experiences. Travellers also sense the problem.
According to Skytrax, five of the top six traveller-preferred airports are public. Motivated by our members’ frustration, we did our own performance bench-marking.
“Privatised airports are definitely more expensive. But there is little difference in efficiency or investment levels compared to airports in public hands,’’ de Juniac said.
The IATA boss maintained that the results of airport privatisations run counter to the results of airline privatisation, which saw the cost of travel drop dramatically.
He noted that airlines, consumers and voters do not accept that privatising airports must lead to higher costs.
de Juniac also called for governments to facilitate the growth of global connectivity by avoiding creeping re-regulation and maintaining the integrity of global standards.
“On aviation’s core mission is to deliver safe, secure, accessible and sustainable connectivity, the state of our industry is strong and getting stronger. And with “normal” levels of profitability we are spreading aviation’s benefits even more widely.
“But there are challenges. Smarter regulation needs to counter the trend of creeping re-regulation.
“Global standards must be maintained by the states that agreed to them. And we need to find efficient solutions to the looming capacity crisis,’’ he said.
