concluding this agreement. This must
be changed. Consultation would not
deny the airport profits but we must
ensure that everyone is focused on
efficiency.”
Anticipating the UN Climate
Change conference in Copenhagen
next month, Bisignani said IATA has
helped six MENA region airlines save
$80 million in carbon emissions this
year and acknowledged the help of
the UAE and Egypt in trying to persuade UN members that “managing
aviation’s emissions must be done by
the experts.”
In a nod to the unilateral approach
by the EU, Bisignani added, “We cannot be naïve. The politics of climate
change are enormously complicated.
Failure to address aviation effectively
could cost us tens of billions of dollars in uncoordinated economic measures, taxes and charges.”
The EU’s controversial emissions trading scheme (ETS), due
for implementation from 2012, will
allocate emission allowances for all
takeoffs and landings at EU airports.
Lufthansa, for example, expects to
pay “hundreds of millions of euros”
as a result of the scheme yet the EU
has not said what it will do with the
money.
Some European airlines have already noted that the ETS will distort
the market and give Arab carriers
a competitive advantage for flights
between the MENA region and North
America.
Flying outside EU airspace, Gulf
airlines can operate non-stop to New
York, Chicago, Houston or Washington DC and thus avoid the ETS
tollbooth. At the same time, the potential route deviation adds 600 miles
of fuel burn and CO2 emissions.
To avoid a patchwork of regional
regulations, Bisignani called on the
Arab carriers to support IATA to
achieve a global sectoral approach to
emission reduction in Copenhagen.
“We are part of a wonderful industry connecting 2. 2 billion people
annually, shipping over 43 million
tonnes of cargo, supporting employment for 32 million people and $3.5
trillion in economic activity. The
spectacular growth in this region reminds us of the power of aviation to
drive economic development.
“Our success in Copenhagen is our
shared responsibility,” he declared.
ACW
In The News...
Following the launch of Etihad non-stop services
from Abu Dhabi to Chicago, the two airports
have signed a Memorandum of Understanding
to become “sister airports” to share technical,
commercial and environmental best practices.
Meanwhile Etihad says it will be profitable by
2011…The Abu Dhabi Airports Company
(ADAC) reported a 6. 2 percent increase in cargo
traffic for August ’09. ADAC credited the jump to
new services from Maximus and China Airlines…
Following the successful use of gas-to-liquid
(GTL) kerosene on a flight from London to Doha,
Qatar Airways says it will begin using the new
derivative from 2012. Shell and Qatar Petroleum
will open the world’s largest GTL plant in 2010
that will produce one million tonnes per annum
of GTL kerosene by 2012. Qatar has the world’s
third-largest gas reserves after Russia and
Iran… DHL Aviation has awarded a cargo GSA
contract to EFIS Morocco to market capacity
on its Boeing 757 freighter services to Paris and
Leipzig from Casablanca. EFIS Morocco is part
of the European Cargo Services (ECS) group…
Ethiopian Airlines has appointed
Freight-In-Time (FIT) as its cargo GSSA for Kenya with effect
from Oct. 1. The company will feed Ethiopian’s
daily B767 flights from Nairobi to Addis Ababa,
which have a cargo capacity of up to 15 tonnes.
FIT, the East African member of the EGSAC
network, has offices in Nairobi, Mombasa and
Kisumu. The company also operates in Tanzania,
Uganda and Rwanda…Olympic Air, the new
privately-owned Greek airline, has appointed
European Cargo Services (ECS) its GSA in
France, Italy, the UK, Romania and Bulgaria. ECS
members Aero Cargo will represent Olympic
Air in France and Globe Air Cargo will market
the airline’s capacity in the other four countries.
Olympic Air began operations on Oct. 1, 2009
serving 10 international and 20 domestic
cities with a fleet of Airbus A319/A320s and
Bombardier Q400 aircraft. The company is owned
by the Marfin Investment Group that has
56,000 employees in transport, tourism, food,
healthcare and IT…Emirates has begun daily
A330-200 services to Durban, its 17th destination
in Africa. Between Aug. 2008 and Jul. 2009 the
airline carried 50 million kilos from South Africa
- a near fourfold increase over the previous 12
months. Traffic included car parts, pay channel
decoders, electronic parking meters, aluminium,
electronics, tools, pineapples and textiles…UTair
Aviation has increased B737-500 capacity
between Samara on Russia’s Volga river and Tel
Aviv, Israel to twice weekly…This month Kuban
Airlines will begin scheduled services between
Krasnodar in southern Russia to Dubai…Dubai
Airports reports cargo growth of 2.75 percent
in September with 168,334 tonnes handled
compared to 163,836 tonnes during the same
period last year. Year-to-date cargo volumes total
1,366,880 tonnes compared to 1,361,358 tonnes
in 2008, an increase of 0.4 per cent. ACW
