IATA Calls For Collaborative Approach To Boost Air Travel Efficiency.

Date: 16 October 2012

IATA Calls For Collaborative Approach To Boost Air Travel Efficiency.

SINGAPORE, Oct 16 (Bernama) -- The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has called upon aviation stakeholders to work together to create greater value for customers across the travel experience while enabling greater efficiency for industry participants.

Its Director General and Chief Executive Officer, Tony Tyler said: "Airlines expect to carry some three billion passengers in 2013 and that number will double by 2030. Connectivity is a critical component of modern economies. Serving that growing demand will require innovation. We need to understand what consumers expect and what they value enough to pay for.

"Aviation is a team effort and that is a challenge for all industry stakeholders. Travel agents, airports, air navigation service providers, regulators, manufacturers, ground service providers, global distribution systems (GDSs) and many others must work together to make each passenger journey as safe, secure, seamless and convenient as possible."

Tyler made his comments in an address to the World Passenger Symposium which opened in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates today. His text of speech was made available here.

Tyler highlighted three priority areas for cooperation to create a more seamless and more interactive modern travel experience. These include simplifying airport processes with Fast Travel, Implementing a Checkpoint of the Future (CoF) for passenger security and developing a New Distribution Capability in line with modern retailing practices

IATA is working with industry stakeholders to implement self-service options with its Fast Travel programme. This gives passengers more control over their airport experience in six key processes - check-in, bag check, travel document scanning, boarding, flight re-booking and baggage tracing.

IATA's role, Tyler said, is to lead the industry to adopt a new, modern infrastructure that will accommodate more choices for personalised travel offers, provide the foundation for the development of efficient tools for agents and lower the overall cost of distribution.

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