By Joseph Varghese
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Safety and the air traffic management will be major topics of discussion during the 70th International Air Transport Association (IATA) Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2014 that will be held in Doha in June this year.
Answering to a question from Gulf Times regarding the recent Malaysian Airlines tragedy, Tony Tyler, director general and CEO of IATA said that the AGM will discuss ways for improved safety.
“MH 370 is unprecedented. We have to wait until the investigation is completed. Safety has been improved over so many decades. Many lessons have been learnt from incidents and IATA has applied various measures and improved technology to ensure better safety for the passengers.”
He said: “We have to identify ways to prevent such incidents in future. We need to look at the issue carefully. We never expected this to happen and it is something that we must prevent in future. No efforts are being spared to track the aircraft and until we come to know the reasons behind the incident, we must not jump into conclusions.”
However, he observed that the incident has raised two issues that can be addressed. “The first is to find a way to ensure that it never takes so long to find a missing aircraft. IATA would convene an expert industry task force to come up with a united industry position on how we can better track aircraft. By year-end we will build consensus to input into their efforts.”
According to Tyler, passport checking is another issue that can be rectified. “Many governments ask airlines to provide advance passenger information which includes passport information. It is clear that they need to use this information more effectively. And we will be asking governments that require advance passenger information to harmonise around the global standards which are set by International Civil Aviation Organisation.”
Tyler also pointed out that the success of the Gulf carriers will certainly be among the topics discussed at the AGM. “We will also address one of the threats to that success - air traffic management. Airspace is finite. So capacity can only grow with efficiency. Each country in the Gulf has invested in impressive technology. But effective management requires regional and international teamwork.”
“Another issue is congestion which is a real and rising problem. It grows with each aircraft that is delivered. Unless it is dealt with quickly, the efficient hub operations which are supporting the region’s success will begin to unravel. I expect that this will get much attention at the AGM,” he added.
