Tag: IATA

There was an increase in air accidents last year compared with the year before, the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA’s) 2018 safety performance data of commercial airline industry released at the weekend has shown.

IATA’s Director-General / Chief Executive Officer, Alexandre de Juniac, said for the third consecutive year, airlines in sub-Saharan Africa experienced zero jet hull losses and zero fatalities in jet operations. The all accident rate was 2.71, a significant improvement over the rate of 6.80 for the previous five years.

Africa was the only region to see a decline in the all-accident rate compared to 2017. However, the region, he said, experienced two fatal turboprop accidents, neither of which involved a scheduled passenger flight.

Besides, Juniac said despite improvements in some areas, there was still a gap to cover in the safety performance of the continent’s turboprop fleet. Global standards such as the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA), he emphasied, is making a difference. Counting all accidents, the performance of African airlines on the IOSA registry was more than twice as good as non-IOSA airlines in the region.

Juniac said: “In parallel, African governments must accelerate the implementation of ICAO’s safety-related standards and recommended practices (SARPS). As of year-end 2017, only 26 African countries had at least 60 Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) implementation. They also should incorporate International Operations Safety Audit into their safety oversight systems.

In 2018, accident rate for airlines on the IOSA registry was more than twice lower than that of non-IOSA airlines. The rate was more than two-and-a-half times better over the 2014-18 period.

According to Juniac, the  2018 IOSA calculations was  however impacted by the fatal accident involving a Global Air aircraft that was leased, along with crew, to Cubana. Because Global Air is not on the IOSA registry, the accident is not considered to have involved an IOSA airline, even though Cubana, as a member of IATA, is required to be on the IOSA registry.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has unveiled a new payment method for air tickets for its over 290 airlines comprising 82 per cent  of global air traffic.

The new method, tagged, IATA Pay, is an industry-supported initiative to develop payment option for consumers when purchasing a ticket directly from an airline website.

It was made possible by the European Commission’s second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), and the United Kingdom’s Open Banking regulation.

IATA is also working with Deutsche Bank on a prototype for Europe, excluding the United Kingdom starting with the German market, which is expected to undergo testing in early 2019. IATA said it  will validate the concept with a view to expanding it to other regions.

These regulations encourage use of direct debit transactions in which payments are made from the customer’s bank account directly into the bank account of the merchant. This method offers an extremely high level of security to both user and recipient and can be instantaneous.

A successful completion of the first “IATA Pay” ticket purchase transaction has been carried out in a live test environment The transaction was conducted in partnership with ipagoo, a UK-based fintech company.

IATA’s role is to develop an industry solution enabling airlines to make this payment option available on their websites. The live test conducted with ipagoo was done under the UK’s Open Banking framework with IATA Pay pilot airlines, including Cathay Pacific Airways, Scandinavian Airlines and Emirates.

ipagoo is the first Pan-European Digital Bank specialised in “everyday banking” and operating in open architecture. ipagoo is part of the Orwell Group, a regulated payments services provider specialising in cash management function.

IATA Pay, besides being highly secured, will  from airlines’ point of view will provide cheaper payment option, compared with other alternatives; facilitate faster cash flow with instant/near instant payment to the merchant will also offer simpler payment process resulting in fewer lost sales.

For consumers the benefits include access to a new, simpler method of payment that is highly secure.

“Today’s consumers, and especially millennials, have expectations of multiple payment options including mobile and peer-to-peer. IATA Pay responds to these expectations. At the same time, airlines are trying to manage significant card payment costs — $8 billion per year and rising,’’ the firm said.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) sees bleak future for Nigeria and other African airlines next year. It said the continent’s carriers are expected to report a $300 million net loss.

The projected loss is a slight improvement of $400 million net loss recorded this year.

The global aviation body has also cautioned countries planning either privatising or concessioning of their airports. It said experience had shown that previous exercises were carried out under less transparent circumstances.

Its Director-General, Alexandre de Juniac made the disclosure at the global IATA Media Day at the agency’s headquarters in Geneva in a paper titled: Cautious Optimism Extends into 2019 Airlines Heading for a Decade in the Black.

He said the precarious situation makes Africa the weakest region as it has been over the past four years, stressing that performance is improving but only slowly.

“Losses are expected to be cut in 2019 as fuel prices decreases. The region benefits from higher-than-average yields and lower operating costs in some categories. However, few airlines in the region are able to achieve adequate load factors to generate profits,” he said.

The clearing house for global airlines has also criticised the stoppage of airport projects under construction, describing it as an ‘extreme case’.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has published the results of a global survey of professionals in the aviation industry highlighting key challenges in talent acquisition, training and retention.

Besides, the survey projects 75 per cent increase in demand for professionals in ground operations, customer services and cabin crew jobs in next two years.

IATA’s Director of Training and Consulting, Guy Brazeau disclosed in this in an interview.

The survey, according to him, was  sequel to forecast growth in passenger traffic  necessitating  careful planning in the appropriate staffing levels across  job categories in the industry.

IATA commissioned market survey experts Circle Research to learn more about how human resources  decision-makers were managing the retention, training and recruiting of skilled professionals to fill the anticipated job gaps.

Respondents were from airlines, airports and ground service providers, spanning all geographic regions and representing a range of organisational size

According to Brazeau, more than 75 per cent of respondents in the survey expect major areas of growth to be in ground operations, customer service and cabin crew services.

African carriers will witness freight demand contract by 8.5 per cent, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) data for global air freight markets released at the weekend has shown.

It said demand, measured in freight ton kilometres (FTKs), rose 2.7 per cent in June this year, compared to the same period the year before. The figures indicate a slowdown in air cargo growth that began earlier this year. Growth for the first half of the year stands at 4.7 per cent less than half the growth rate in 2017.

According to the report, freight capacity rose by 4.1 per cent in June this year, adding that capacity growth has now outstripped demand growth in every month since March.

IATA’s Director-General and Chief Executive Officer,   Alexandre de Juniac, blamed three factors for the slow down.

These he said are restocking cycle, during which businesses rapidly built up inventories to meet demand which ended early this year. There was a marked fall in air cargo volumes from March.

Juniac said: “We are now seeing a structural slowdown in global trading conditions as indicated by the fall in the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) to its lowest level since 2016. Factory export order books have turned negative in China, Japan and the United States (U.S).

“The temporary grounding of the Nippon Cargo Airlines fleet in the second half of June exaggerated the slow-down by shaving up to 0.5 percentage points off June growth.

“Air cargo continues to be a difficult business with downside risks mounting. We still expect about four per cent growth over the course of the year. But the deterioration in world trade is a real concern.

“While air cargo is somewhat insulated from the current round of rising tariff barriers, an escalation of trade tension resulting in a ‘reshoring’ of production and consolidation of global supply chains would change the outlook significantly for the worse. Trade wars never produce winners. Governments must remember that prosperity comes from boosting their trade, not barricading economies.

“All regions except Africa reported a year-on-year increase in freight volumes in June 2018, but the slow growth in Asia-Pacific, which accounts for nearly 37 per cent of the entire air cargo market, dragged the global growth rate down.

” African carriers saw freight demand contract 8.5 per cent  in June 2018 compared to the same month last year. Capacity also fell, by 1.4 per cent . It is difficult to be positive about the current picture in Africa. International FTKs fell at the fastest pace (-8.6 per cent ) for nearly nine years.

“Although the year-on-year growth rate for the first half of 2018 was 3.0 per cent , in seasonally-adjusted terms, FTKs are trending downward at an annualised rate of almost 20 per cent  over the past six months, and demand conditions are weak on all the main markets to and from the continent.”

International Air Transport Association (IATA) has urged African governments to accelerate the implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market ( SAATM) launched last week in Addis Ababa by heads of states and governments of African Union.

According to IATA, Regional Vice President for Africa, Mr Robert Kuuchi, apart from the 23 countries that have signed up for the continental air treaty, the remaining  32 should take steps to come on board.

Speaking in an online interview, Kuuchi said the initiative by AU  would  not open up Africa’s skies, but rather would also improve intra-African air connectivity.

Besides, enhanced  connectivity, Kuuchi said the initiative would  stimulate demand, and  improve the competitiveness of the African airline industry by making air travel more accessible.

The African Open Skies, Kuuchi said, would enable higher volumes of trade, expand tourism and grow commerce between African nations and the rest of the world.

”The SAATM has the potential for remarkable transformation that will build prosperity while connecting the African continent. Every open air service arrangement has boosted traffic, lifted economies and created jobs. And we expect no less in Africa on the back of the SAATM agreement.

“We commend the 23 states that have signed up to SAATM.  It is an important step forward. But the benefits of a connected continent will only be realised through effective implementation of SAATM—firstly by the countries already committed and also by the remaining 32 AU member nations still to come on board,” said  Kuuchi.

“The decision is momentous. SAATM is a decisive step towards greater intra-African connectivity and delivers the framework on which to achieve it. Now it’s time to get down to the work of implementation. Greater connectivity will lead to greater prosperity. Governments must act on their commitments, and allow their economies to fly high on the wings of aviation,” Kuuchi added.

Meanwhile, IATA forecasts a trebling in the size of Angola’s air transport market to 7.1 million passengers a year by 2036 at the present forecast annual growth rate of 6.7 per cent.