Infrastructure tops discussion in global aviation meeting

SEOUL – Infrastructure issues topped the discussion of aviation leaders and experts at the 75th annual general membership meeting and World Air Transport Summit (WATS) of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s director general and chief executive officer, said the global aviation industry is far from meeting the requirements for airports and air traffic management including sufficient capacity, quality and efficiency aligned with airline expectations and affordable costs.

 “We are far from that today,” De Juniac said in his report on the air transport industry.

De Juniac cited the air traffic management shortcomings in Europe as well as air traffic bottlenecks in China, the US, the Gulf and elsewhere.

On the airport side, De Juniac cited the deficiencies in Mexico City as well as congestion in Sao Paolo, New York, London, Amsterdam, Mumbai, Bangkok, and Sydney, among others.

However, De Juniac noted steps being undertaken by other countries including the construction of major hubs in Istanbul and China as well as national airspace strategies in Poland, Italy, and France as well as an ambitious vision for connectivity implemented by South Korea.

“There is some good news. Some governments do understand the importance of infrastructure. Other governments should take note. Developing infrastructure – airports or air traffic management – lays an economic cornerstone,” De Juniac said.

De Juniac said careful planning, broad consultation with users, examination of funding options and keen focus on affordability are the key factors.

“The right decisions today will determine the economic and social benefits that will be realized in the future,” De Juniac said.

IATA senior vice president Paul Steele talked about infrastructure in one of the briefings as the industry is now in a capacity crisis with passenger demand worldwide expected to double by 2037.

Steele said 1.5 billion passengers currently depart from more than 200 slot coordinated airports and 100 more coordinated airports are expected over the next 10 years.

“The number of passengers using air transport is set to nearly double by 2037. In many key places, infrastructure capacity is not being built fast enough to meet growing demand, as seen by the more than 200 airports worldwide that are capacity-constrained,” Steele said.

Jaime Bautista, president and chief operating officer of Philippine Airlines, said in an interview the state of airport infrastructure in the Philippines is a major factor in its aspiration to become a five-star airline by 2020.

International air transport rating organization Skytrax certified the national flag carrier owned by taipan Lucio Tan as a 4-star airline, joining 40-other airlines worldwide. The rating is a mark of quality distinction that recognizes excellent standards of product and staff service across different assessment categories for both the onboard and airport environment

Early last month, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade accepted the proposal of the super consortium of seven conglomerates to rehabilitate the congested Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

The consortium composed of Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Alliance Global Group Inc., Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp., Filinvest Development Corp., JG Summit Holdings Inc. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. has committed P102 billion to rehabilitate, upgrade, expand, operate and maintain the aging NAIA for 15 years.

The 30-year oil international gateway is already bursting at the seams as passenger volume is already about 40 percent above its annual designed capacity of 31 million passengers.

Likewise, the Department of Transportation has already started the bidding process with the Swiss challenge for the proposed P745 billion airport project of conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) that was approved by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) in April last year.

Meanwhile, the new terminal that would add another eight million passengers to the current capacity of 4.2 million at the Clark International Airport in Pampanga is expected to be completed by the middle of next year.

The Duterte administration has earmarked a whopping P9 trillion to undertake a massive infrastructure build up under the Build Build Build program until 2022.