This year has seen the brand new launch of the World Route Development Forum, bringing together the conference elements in to one single summit. The first day of the World Route Development Strategy Summit attempted to provide all aviation stakeholders with a complete understanding of the most significant challenges currently face the air transport industry and showcase the latest innovations in key growth markets.
The morning of the programme was dedicated to route leader strategies, focusing on international issues that impact the whole industry and was followed by an afternoon of streamed sessions focusing on Route Development, Air Cargo and Travel & Tourism.
The HUB highlights one of the key topics, The Stoltenburg Report, as well as some of the key quotes from yesterday's discussions...
Government officials have “singled out” aviation with a policy that aims to charge the industry $16bn in annual taxes, said Athar Hussain, Deputy Secretary General of AEA. The Stoltenburg Report, which is soon to be announced, aims to use $100bn in additional taxes to lower carbon emissions in developing countries.
Speaking yesterday at The World Route Development Strategy Summit, co-located alongside the World Routes Forum in Berlin, Hussain claimed the proposal is “outrageous and ridiculous… it’s an easy way out for politicians.”
The industry is already under threat from the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), which panel member Vijay Poonoosamy, VP of international and public affairs, Etihad, dubbed “ill-conceived”, “illegal” and “hopefully ill-fated”. A collaboration of 30 nations met last week to form a joint declaration opposing the ETS, this will soon be delivered to the EU along with an invitation to meet in November.
Event quotes...
“Having a piecemeal response is not going to help,” said Athar Hussain, deputy secretary general of AEA on the subject of EU ETS.
Prashant Sukul, joint secretary for the Ministry of Civil Aviation, India, suggested the EU ETS may contain “shades of discrimination” that wrongly penalise non-EU countries. “The whole thing is going to get messy,” he added.
Olivier Jankovec, director general of ACI Europe called environmental taxes “pure hypocrisy” as the proceeds do not go towards reducing environmental impact. Jankovec said of passenger tax duty: “We see this as one of the main problems for airport growth in Europe", also adding: "It is quite difficult for Governments to back-track on taxes as it brings so much of an economic benefit."
John Kirby, Director International, Southwest Airlines confirmed that the airline would "be introducing 30 737-800s in the next year". These, he said, would "directly replace the airline's 737-300s on a one-for-one basis", but there is scope for flexibility "as we can delay the retirement of some of our classics," he added. Kirby also confirmed that Southwest would commence flying to Mexico by 2013.
(additional reporting by Mary-Anne Baldwin, Editor of UBM Aviation's Airline Fleet Management)
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