Airport hit list grows
Bangkok and London have been added to director general Giovanni Bisignani's hit list of airports with excessive charges. "Too many airports still operate as happy monopolies," Bisignani says. "While you [airlines] struggle to reduce costs, airports added $2 billion to your bill. Three are at the top of my special list: Bangkok, London and Paris. Together they grabbed $1.4 billion. This is outrageous and I will continue to embarrass them with figures and facts." Bisignani over the last few years has publicly targeted airports with profit margins of more than 40%. Paris and Newark were on his hit list at last year's annual general meeting. IATA says Bangkok added $499 million in charges last year, while charges in Paris increased by $634 million and in London by $188 million.
Pinto takes over as chairman
TAP Portugal chief executive Fernando Pinto has replaced Singapore Airlines chief executive Chew Choon Seng as IATA chairman. Pinto began his one-year term as chairman at the close of the annual general meeting in Vancouver and will stay on until the close of next year's meeting in Istanbul. Pinto, who has led TAP since stepping down as Varig's chief executive in 2000, says environment, security and safety are his main priorities. "We have to make this safe travel experience a good travel experience."
Bisignani: three more years
IATA has extended director general and chief executive Giovanni Bisignani's contract until at least 2010. Formerly the chief executive of Alitalia, Bisignani joined IATA in 2002.
Board seats redistributed
The IATA board is to be reduced in size next year from 31 to 30 seats, with seats redistributed between geographic regions. The European quota will fall from 10 to nine and North America's from six to five. Asia-Pacific's portion rises from seven to eight, Africa keeps five and Latin America retains three seats. The redistribution reflects changes in traffic each region carries as a portion of the world total. IATA membership dues will fall by 11%.
Source: Airline Business
