Senior executives from International Air Transport Association (IATA) member carriers have been warned that the industry's rapid growth contains the seeds of its own destruction by alienating passengers. Fatal-accident numbers are set to increase with traffic expansion, and congested airports will create misery unless the whole passenger-processing system is radically simplified, according to IATA's director general Pierre Jeanniot.
Speaking at IATA's 1-2 November annual general meeting (AGM) in Amman, Jordan, Jeanniot said that a predicted average growth rate of 6-7% a year could, within ten years, see passengers becoming frightened by increasing accident numbers, even if actual rates stay the same. Meanwhile, air travellers would suffer packed airports, where check-in, customs, immigration, security and baggage-handling fail to cope adequately with the numbers.
Jeanniot's answer was to give safety, usually left to specialist IATA groups, an unprecedentedly high profile at the AGM, where 259 of the world's major carriers are represented. He set a target of halving the hull-loss accident rate by 2004 "as an interim measure", especially focusing on the worst killer, controlled-flight-into-terrain accidents. Half of the AGM's first day was given over to a safety seminar addressed by representatives from a manufacturer, a regulator, and an airline chief executive, and European Civil Aviation Conference chief Andre Auer.
Also given high priority was Jeanniot's launch of a programme dubbed Passenger processing - simplifying the journey. The programme will examine the use of technology to ease the travel process, from ticket-sale and check-in to the time the passenger leaves the destination airport. Crucial for success, says Jeanniot, is improved co-operation with airports, security services, and customs and immigration agencies to find ways to speed the flow of passengers through airports.
Source: Flight International
