India urged to speed aviation management
DAMASCUS – The International Air Transport Association has warned that India’s booming aviation sector could falter without urgent infrastructure development.
Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s director general and CEO, said the benefits of growth in air traffic worldwide would be put at risk without adequate infrastructure development.
Bisignani, speaking to the Arab Air Carriers Organisation, warned of “a looming infrastructure crisis”.
“Failure to prepare adequately to meet demand will have an environmental cost with inefficient use of airspace and delays. There is no panacea, but the starting point for a sustainable solution is a common vision for efficiency that is acted on by governments and industry.
“With infrastructure planning timelines measured in decades, there is no time to lose.”
Bisignani added, “Parts of the world are effectively managing infrastructure development to anticipate and meet demand—particularly the Middle East and China. But the enormous anticipated expansion in India that has fuelled record aircraft orders could be cut short by insufficient airport and air traffic management capacity.
“The unprecedented delays nightmare in the US is a clear example of the paralysis that results when we miss the mark on effective planning.
“This is mirrored in Europe where governments still have not cleaned up the mess in air traffic management with an effective Single European Sky.
“In total, infrastructure inefficiency—from bottlenecks to inefficient processes—adds 12 percent to our fuel bill and costs the environment 73 million tonnes of unnecessary CO2 emissions each year,” said Bisignani.
Latest forecasts from IATA project that in 2011 the air transport industry will handle 2.75 billion passengers – 620m more passengers than in 2006.
• International passenger demand is expected to rise from 760m passengers in 2006 to 980m in 2011 at an annual average growth rate (AAGR) of 5.1 percent. This will be lower than the 7.4 percent AAGR recorded during 2002-2006, largely due to slightly slower global economic growth.
• Domestic passenger demand is expected grow from 1.37 billion passengers in 2006 to 1.77bn in 2011, an AAGR of 5.3 percent, fuelled by expansion in the Indian and Chinese domestic markets.
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“The numbers clearly show that the world wants to fly. And it also needs to fly,” said Bisignani.
“Air transport is critical to the fabric of the global economy, playing a critical role in wealth generation and poverty reduction. The livelihoods of 32 million people are tied to aviation, accounting for US$3.5 trillion in economic activity.”
Ian Jarrett
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