The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has urged aviation stakeholders to continue to be guided by the spirit of the 1944 Convention on International Civil Aviation, known as the Chicago Convention, in response to the challenges being faced by the aviation today and in the future.
"Seventy-five years ago, as World War II still raged, a group of far-sighted individuals met in Chicago and laid the foundations enabling the development of our globally interconnected and interdependent world through aviation," said IATA's Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac.
"Today, aviation has become the business of freedom, liberating us to pursue our dreams and fulfill our hopes, while powering economic growth and development," he said.
In the United States, aviation supports 6.5 million jobs and contributes 779 billion dollars to GDP including aviation-supported tourism, according to IATA's just-released report on the Value of Air Transport in the US.
Speaking at IATA's Wings of Change Americas conference here on Tuesday (local time), de Juniac outlined principles to ensure aviation continues to live up to the legacy of the Chicago Convention.
In addition to maintaining safety as the industry's highest priority, he urged aviation stakeholders to focus on environmental sustainability, ensuring a policy framework that encourages competition and innovation, and infrastructure that is efficient and affordable.
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"Environmental sustainability is the greatest challenge to our industry's license to spread the benefits of air connectivity. The environmental impact of an individual traveller has been cut in half compared to 1990, and we have decoupled emissions growth from underlying traffic growth," said de Juniac.
Turning to the need for a pro-competition policy framework, he said: "Competition unleashes innovation and helps drive prices lower. This is what occurred following airline deregulation. Subsequently, we have seen how removing barriers to international competition through open skies agreements have also spurred the market and benefitted consumers."
De Juniac also highlighted the need for adequate affordable infrastructure.
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