Following the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines MH370, IATA announced plans to establish an industry task force to develop recommendations to improve global flight tracking
As part of its commitment to improve flight tracking, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) is working on presenting options before a global body by September this year.
IATA, which concluded its 70th annual general meeting in Doha yesterday, confirmed that Aircraft Tracking Task Force (ATTF) expects to be in a position to deliver “draft options” for enhanced global aircraft tracking to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in September.
This will be followed by presentations to the global aviation industry before year-end, IATA said.
Following the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines MH370, IATA announced plans to establish an industry task force to develop recommendations to improve global flight tracking. The commitment made at the time of the task force announcement was to have them available by end-2014.
IATA invited ICAO and key stakeholders throughout the aviation industry to participate in the ATTF. The first meeting of the group was held on May 13.
Separately, but in conjunction with IATA, ICAO held a special multi-disciplinary meeting on global flight tracking on May 12 and 13. An outcome of the ICAO meeting was a consensus among member states and the international air transport industry sector on the near-term priority to track airline flights.
ICAO will also begin considering performance-based international standards, on a priority basis, to ensure broader adoption of airline flight tracking across the aviation system.
ICAO and IATA are working together to conduct a survey of vendors to identify options. Over the next few months, the ATTF will develop a set of performance-based recommendations to better ensure global aircraft tracking - meaning that there will likely be a number of options that airlines can consider. These recommendations will be developed through an assessment of available products and services used for tracking commercial aircraft against specific criteria, including factors such as performance parameters, coverage, security, and cost. Additionally, the ATTF will define a minimum set of performance requirements that any system should achieve.
The ATTF includes representatives from IATA, ICAO, Airlines for America, Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation, Flight Safety Foundation, International Coordinating Council of Aerospace Industries Associations, International Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Airbus SAS, Bombardier Aerospace, and Embraer Commercial Aviation.
“Aviation stakeholders are united in their desire to ensure that we never face another situation where an aircraft simply disappears,” said Kevin Hiatt, IATA senior vice-president (safety and flight operations).
“While member states work through ICAO to develop and implement performance-based global standards, the industry is committed to moving forward with recommendations that airlines can implement now.”
Additional cost may be passed to passengers
Moves by airlines to keep track of their aircraft in real time following the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines’ flight MH370 could push up ticket prices for passengers - but governments should also foot part of the bill, Reuters quoted airline industry leaders as saying in Doha yesterday. Senior executives attending IATA’s annual meeting said they needed to install a tracking system to ensure no more airliners could simply vanish as the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER did in March.
Passengers, however, would have to bear at least some of the cost of automated tracking that is eventually expected to become mandatory. “This would be an additional cost and would be passed to passengers,” Finnair’s chief executive Pekka Vauramo told Reuters at the IATA meeting.
“Who is the ultimate beneficiary of the services that the airlines provide? The answer is the passenger,” Japan Airlines’ chairman, Masaru Onishi, added. “Along those lines, the airlines need to continue studying this system, especially as it pertains to the cost of not only the widespread introduction but also the sustainability of a system,” he said.