Air travellers to hit 7.2bn by 2035

IATA’s Director General, Mr Alexandre de Juniac, made the projection while speaking at the World Passenger Symposium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

A copy of his speech was obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos.

De Juniac said IATA had laid out a transformative vision for air travel that would enable aviation to successfully accommodate a near doubling in demand for air travel over the next two decades.

“My dream journey through the airport would offer security processes that are both effective and convenient, constant communication that makes me aware of changes to my journey or opportunities nearby, and a more efficient way of identifying myself to the airline, security staff and border management,” he said.

According to him, the road map to turn this dream into reality is being developed through IATA’s Simplifying the Business (StB) programme.

De Juniac said the StB looks over the passenger experience from an end-to-end perspective across all processes, from shopping for travel, to the airport experience, to arriving at the destination, with a special focus on transformation.

He called on air transport stakeholders to work together and embrace speed and innovation to meet the challenges of growth and rising passenger expectations.

“How do we move these concepts forward? The answer is in partnerships. Even as we implement today’s great ideas, we need to be looking for the next innovation that will make air travel even more compelling to the potential traveller.

“And we should be prepared to face a future where the cycle of innovation is continuously accelerating,” the IATA boss said.

De Juniac warned, however, that no matter how much or how quickly we innovate our processes, there was no getting around the need to be both smart and quick in growing airport and airspace capacity.

He cited rising congestion, particularly in Europe, noting that fast growing areas including the Gulf region and China also face airspace capacity issues.

De Juniac said: “I fear that we may be headed for an infrastructure crisis that will impact air travellers.

“Inadequate infrastructure negatively impacts the passenger experience in the form of flight delays, longer routes and inefficient schedules.

“Then, there is the cost to economies of lost business opportunities, employment and social development.

“Remember aviation is a critical catalyst for economic and social development, supporting 63 million jobs and some $2.7 trillion in economic impact.”

He further cited the recent historic agreement among member states of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to enable aviation to grow sustainably as an example of what can be achieved by working together.

“Where we have common interests, we can produce results. With ICAO, the industry worked with governments to achieve the world’s first agreement to offset the environmental impact generated by the growth of an entire industrial sector.

“Along with our investments in more efficient technologies, infrastructure and operations, we will ensure that aviation grows sustainably as we prepare to meet our long-term commitment to cut net emissions to half of 2005 levels by 2050,” De Juniac said.