AFTA update
From AFTA’s chief executive, Jayson Westbury
THIS week’s Travel Daily column is a few days late as a result of a fast paced visit to the IATA AGM in Cancun Mexico this past Sun-Tue. The AGM is the real highlight of IATA conference events each year with a great number of airline CEOs and senior executives all getting together for the once-a-year “off the record” chit chat about the industry and the important policy issues that the aviation industry should tackle now and in the future.
This year’s event brought with it a star-studded line up of airline CEOs who mixed and mingled with the common people, like me. As my first ever trip to Mexico, Cancun is the type of place that you would be very happy taking the family for a beach holiday, perhaps a romantic getaway or honeymoon or that discreet interlude with a special friend.
It would not be where you would expect to find 800 people in business attire, the likes of an IATA AGM. But nevertheless, the AGM took place in such a place and there were some key outcomes and learnings that I am sure IATA wants to share.
Firstly, in 2016 the average profit per passenger across the IATA airlines was only US$7.69. Secondly, that in 2016 a total of US$125.9b was paid by passengers for the use of airport and air navigation services. Thirdly, that a total of US$117b was paid by passengers in the form of taxation paid to governments. And from my seat, it was made clear that Australia as a country collects more than its proportional share of these revenues if by no other means than the over-collected, disproportionate and high passenger movement charge (PMC), the second highest in the world.
The total numbers particularly the taxation number is ridiculously high and there is clearly a joint effort mounting within the aviation sector to see how this might be able to be controlled more. A joint effort is needed and with Alexandre de Juniac at the helm of IATA as the recently appointed director general and ceo, they might just have a chance of making a difference. Mr de Juniac is an experienced political operative and aviation ceo, so perhaps with these two excellent skill sets we may see some change for the good within the industry.
On a final note about the IATA AGM, the new director general invited two speakers to present the growing global challenge of human trafficking. A confronting issue without a doubt and the numbers are staggering. It is estimated that some 21 million people are being trafficked each year and this number is on the rise. The presentation from the CNN initiative The Freedom Project was definitely confronting to watch and I would recommend everyone in the travel industry to stop and take a look at just how serious this issue is. For more details go to: http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com.