IATA urges more cooperation between Eastern Europe and Aviation leaders

Addressing delegates at the IATA Aviation Day Eastern Europe conference which opened in Bucharest last week, IATA's CEO Tony Tyler urged greater cooperation between Eastern European governments and aviation industry stakeholders: “Aviation connectivity can play a key role in the economic success of Eastern Europe. But in order to achieve these benefits, the region will need to tackle some long-standing problems which hamper competitiveness and innovation,” he said.

Tyler named the environment, passenger rights and infrastructure as three areas where governments should embrace innovation. Firstly, for the industry to achieve carbon neutral growth by 2020, cooperation from governments would be required, he said. On the issue of passenger rights, Tyler focussed mainly on competition and the need for governments to take responsibility for protecting consumers by ensuring service standards are maintained and regulated. Finally, when addressing the topic of infrastructure, Tyler highlighted that the most pressing issue was the Single European Sky and emphasised that the lack of political will to push states to unify European airpace is costing the continent EUR5 billion annually.

Source: IATA