The 54th Annual General Meeting of Arab Air Carriers Organization (AACO), which was held yesterday in Doha, had adopted ‘net zero emissions’ target by 2050, based on the strategy which relates to the joint responsibility of all sectors concerned with civil aviation.
The General Assembly that was held under the patronage of Minister of Transport H E Jassim bin Saif bin Ahmed Al Sulaiti, and by kind invitation of Group Chief Executive, Qatar Airways and Chairman of the 54th AGM H E Akbar Al Baker was attended by the CEOs of AACO member air-lines, AACO partner airlines and industry partners from aircraft and engine manufacturers, Global Distribution Systems (GDSs), IT providers and other specialized companies relevant to the Arab air transport industry.
The AGM also called upon the European Union to respect the clause included in the annex of ICAO Assembly Resolution A39-2 and the clause included in the preamble of ICAO Assembly Resolution A39-3 on not imposing unilateral initia-tives and to return to the global consensus that took place within the framework of ICAO.
The res-olution reaffirms the importance of respecting the Chicago con-vention and the Bilateral Air Services Agreements in all matters related to civil aviation and international air transport, including all affairs related to the environment. The AGM adopted another resolution reflecting what is needed for a faster recovery of the air transport sector from the implications of COVID-19.
In particular, the AGM called upon governments to follow the guidelines of air travel and biosafety that were agreed upon by governments through the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) and their joint work which culminated in the pub-lishing of the ICAO’s Council Avi-ation Recovery Taskforce’s Recovery Report and Take-off Guidance which is now available in its 4th edition.
The AGM also commended and welcomed the decision of the Arab League’s Council of Eco-nomic and Social Affairs, which adopted general principles for air travel biosafety measures and the mutual recognition of vaccination certificates based on global guide-lines by ICAO and the WHO, and called upon governments to implement those principles in the national measures with regards to biosafety and air travel, and directed AACO to support the work of the Arab League jointly with the Arab Civil Aviation Organization, the Arab Tourism Organization, and the Interna-tional Air Transport Association.
With regards to some coun-tries’ initiatives to agree on Travel Health Corridors and/or Travel Bubbles, the AGM called upon those governments to follow ICAO’s guidelines while implementing those measures, particularly that they be tem-porary and that air services agreements, as they stand, should be the basis for any opening up for air travel under the travel health corridors and /or travel bubbles.
In addition, the AGM stressed the importance of technology to create touchless processes in all the travel activities and sup-ported the initiatives taken by a number of entities to develop and deploy applications that would facilitate touchless air travel, particularly the IATA Travel Pass and other applica-tions which can be used by both governments and stakeholders.
The AGM also welcomed the Arab Civil Aviation Organization (ACAO), the European Commission (EC), and the Inter-national Air Transport Associ-ation (IATA), in addition to a number of aviation experts, where the number of delegates surpassed 200.AACO Secretary General Abdul Wahab Teffaha’s report addressed four axes of high focus for the global and Arab air transport industry. AACO Sec-retary General presented his report to the AGM focusing on four points.
First, the implications of COVID-19 on the economy and air transport, and how gov-ernments approached air travel following the outbreak of the virus.Second, the principles that governments and stakeholders need to follow to support the air transport sector during the pan-demic and help it re-emerge as the strongest supporter to eco-nomic growth.
Third, AACO member air-lines’ commitment to contribute to fully mitigating air transport’s emissions, and the role of all avi-ation stakeholders in reaching that target.Fourth, the urgency of speeding up the road to a com-prehensive digital transfor-mation for air travel processes.He said the contribution of the travel and tourism sector in global GDP dropped from 10.4% in 2019 to 5.5% in 2020, while in the Arab world the same indi-cator dropped from 14.4% in 2019 to 5.4 in 2020.
The percentage of job losses in this sector worldwide was around 32% of the total jobs lost in 2020, while the percentage of job losses in the Arab world in travel and tourism accounted for 55% of the total jobs lost in 2020. With such a deep and lin-gering impact of the crisis, it is expected that returning to 2019 passenger traffic levels will take three to five years from now, a period that depends heavily on how the world will adapt to a new normal of having an endemic Covid - 19.
The Secretary General went on to address the changes in the climate that pushed the entire world to deal with this existential threat in order to achieve a world free of carbon emissions caused by human activities.
On that front, the Sec-retary General emphasized that achieving net zero carbon emis-sions by 2050 requires the fol-lowing stakeholders to do their part in achieving the 2050 goal: governments, manufacturers and technology partners, and fuel and sustainable fuel suppliers The Secretary General then discussed the importance of adopting technology and embracing digital transformation, highlighting the qualitative leaps taken by many airlines, airports, and even governments in adopting information technology solutions that allow travelers to conduct all of their transactions electronically, without the need for any inter-vention or human communi-cation.
He called for further embracing solutions, such as the IATA Travel Pass, as those signif-icantly contribute to alleviating the burdens imposed by the viral sit-uation on travelers first and all stakeholders in air transport
