Global air industry needs urgent attention to infrastructure: IATA

GENEVA, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- The global airlines' industry needs urgent attention to its infrastructure as governments are not meeting their responsibility in this sphere, Alexandre de Juniac, the CEO of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said Tuesday.

Speaking at IATA's annual global Media Day in Geneva, de Juniac noted that the lack of investment in infrastructure "also has an environmental cost" for air traffic management and he cautioned governments, "There is no time to lose."

"Airlines have invested in planes with amazing capabilities. But we are not able to use them fully to maximize efficiency," the IATA chief said.

He noted that this year airlines will safely fly four billion people and 60 million tonnes of cargo over some 20,000 city pairs.

"This is a critical activity for the global economy. About a third of the value of goods traded internationally are shipped by air. International air travelers spend about 750 billion U.S. dollars annually," said de Juniac.

In the United States, the development of what is called the NextGen air traffic management continues to suffer in the budgeting process, he explained.

IATA supports the "corporatization of U.S. air traffic management" said de Juniac, noting that there are "high hurdles" to achieving that this year, but his organization intends to continue advocating for it.

"In Europe, narrow national interests are blocking the implementation of the Single European Sky.

"So we are working with governments to develop national airspace plans that could be the building blocks for a single sky -- and with some success," said the IATA head.

In the last months IATA has signed agreements with Poland and France to cooperate on developing a national airspace strategy. And it is in advanced discussions with Germany, Italy and Spain.

"In principle, our demands are rather simple. We need capacity to meet demand. Airports must be aligned with user needs for quality and technical specifications. And affordability is key," said de Juniac.

He noted that about two thirds of airports needing slot coordination are in Europe.

"And there are bottlenecks around the world -- Sydney, Bangkok, Manila, Jakarta, Mumbai, Mexico City, New York, Sao Paolo -- to name just a few. That demonstrates the size of the infrastructure challenge," the IATA CEO said. Enditem