Alexandre de Juniac, IATA's Director General and CEO addressed the 36th Plenary of the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) today. Highlights of the speech include the following:

Infrastructure

De Juniac called on European policy-makers to take urgent action to ensure that Europe avoids an infrastructure crisis by:

- Addressing the airport capacity crunch

- Modernizing airspace management

"160 million European fliers in 2040 will be disappointed because the infrastructure will not be able to cope with the volume of people needing to travel. And every person that cannot fly is a lost opportunity that filters throughout the economy. Long-term, the only solution is investment in airports and air traffic management," said de Juniac.

Environment

De Juniac urged EU governments to focus on the successful implementation of CORSIA following the ICAO Council's recent adoption of a comprehensive set of standards and recommended practices which set the detailed requirements for the implementation of CORSIA.

"We can all be proud of the hard work that led to the historic CORSIA agreement--particularly Europe which raised the flag early on environmental issues. CORSIA is the agreed global economic measure. So while we are trying to implement CORSIA, it is disappointing to see a number of European states looking to implement new environment taxes on top of the EU ETS." said de Juniac.

Brexit and Protectionism

"Airlines--indeed all businesses--do better with greater degrees of certainty in the business environment. The headline uncertainty is finding agreement on Brexit conditions impacting aviation. Airlines are already selling tickets for the post-Brexit period. The EU and UK must move much faster to avoid disrupting passengers, trade and business.

"Longer term, the big uncertainty is protectionism and a retreat from globalization. Aviation is the business of freedom. It delivers its best when borders are open to people and trade. Policy-makers should facilitate its success because aviation is a powerful catalyst for an even more inclusive globalization," said de Juniac.

The full text of de Juniac's remarks is available on the IATA website.

Contributed by IATA