The representative body of the global airline industry has asked governments of countries like India, which have huge unrealised potential in aviation, to use the sector as a strategic asset and devise policies that spur competitiveness.
Tony Tyler, director general and chief executive officer of the International Air Transport Association, a global industry trade body, says the European Union-Emission Trading Scheme is a regional programme, which cannot be imposed on the rest of ther world.
The conference, being attended by some 700 aviation leaders including chiefs of airlines and aircraft-makers, is discussing issues like aviation safety, environment, distribution and financial sustainability among others.
Observing that India's airport regulator AERA allowed a whopping 346 per cent hike in Delhi airport charges, IATA Director General and CEO Tony Tyler said 'this is clearly unacceptable'.
Tough measures need to be taken to make Air India "survive and thrive", global airlines body IATA said on Wednesday, asking the government to take a cue from the merger of two state-owned Japanese carriers which slashed jobs and operations to come out of bankruptcy.
In India, the aviation industry contributes five per cent of gross domestic product, around Rs 291 crore (Rs 2.91 billion) in tax contributions, provides four million jobs and another seven million jobs through tourism and related activities.
High taxes, high airport costs, poorly developed air navigation and high cost of operations makes investment unappealing.
The most significant growth was recorded by carriers in the Asia-Pacific and West Asian regions at 5.9 per cent and 12.9 per cent respectively. Carriers in these regions captured the vast majority of the global increase (93 per cent).
The week is being termed as a 'black week' for the aviation industry.
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Domestic capacity across the eight global markets climbed 6.5 per cent while the seat factor grew by 0.8 percentage points to 83.6 per cent during this period, IATA said.
High taxes on the jet fuel, which goes up as high as 40 per cent in some states, coupled with higher airport charges in the form of user development and airport development fee, which have cascading effect on the air fares, have had a negative impact on the domestic passenger demand in India.
On the international air traffic front, Asia-Pacific airlines recorded an increase in demand of 5.5 per cent compared to November 2012.
The Indian government's decision in 2012 to allow foreign direct investment in civil-aviation sector up to 49 per cent has enthused new airlines to launch their operations and capitalise on country's 1.2 billion population, a pre-statement to the Global Aerospace Summit said.
Cash-strapped Air India should be run by professionals even if the government partially off-loads its stake to investors to keep it off-the-ground, a top global aviation professional has said.
Like Air India, there have been recent cyber attacks on some major airlines, including one in Canada, and a global airlines alliance
In India currently, Air India, Jet Airways and its subsidiary JetLite are members of the IOSA and conform to the safety standards set by this audit on a regular basis.
Given all the risks in the world today, including the political instability, economic uncertainty, public health emergence and terrorism, there is not much buffer to absorb a significant change for the worse in the operating environment
A ministry spokesperson said he wasn't aware of the development.
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