Majali opens IATA AGM with strong words for the industry

Royal Jordanian Airlines chairman Samer Majali is preparing today to open the IATA Annual General Meeting in Kuala Lumpur in his role as Chairman of the global airline industry group

Majali vacates the position later this month after a tumultuous year which, he told the AGM’s Airline Business Daily News, has underlined the fragility of the airline business.

Within four months of his taking up the post in June 2008, fears over the runaway price of fuel started giving way to concerns that global economic collapse would deliver a knock-out blow to crippled operators.

Majali told the newsletter that airlines could do little to bring down fuel costs and, a year on, are similarly struggling to attract revenue.

“I think the airline industry re mains the weakest link in the entire air transport chain, because we’re at the front end to the consumer,” he told Airline Business Daily News. Majali suggests that one of IATA’s most significant achievements this year has been “minimising the damage” to the business as a whole, not least by ensuring that the banks which have gone through a “hard time” have nevertheless protected carriers’ finances.

“There’s been a lot of work on that side,” he said. But during his tenure as chairman Majali also argues that the association has worked to become more vocal about its members’ interests, and increasingly prepared to defend itself against charges over environmental indifference.

“IATA has done a far better job in terms of getting our message across,” he says, citing its presence at the Copenhagen climate change summit in May. The association presented its “Green Team” efforts to implement operational best practice, as well as route-shortening and technological initiatives, plus IATA’s plans to establish an industry carbon-offset programme this year.

He says he “finds very strange” the accusations of “irresponsibility” towards the industry regarding the environment. “We must remember that airlines have a built in desire to reduce emissions,” he says.

“We’re trying to do our bit through global solutions and minimise our negative image.” While IATA remains heavily critical of the European Union’s unilateral emissions trading scheme, Majali admits it has been “so far thwarted” in securing a global alternative. He adds that the airline industry needs governmental support in the form of reinvestment, to ensure that green taxation is fed back into relevant projects such as the
development of second-generation biofuel. But he says there is “incremental” progress on all of IATA’s issues, adding: “You expect that on a global level things take time. You can always control things within your own airline better.”

Daily reports from the IATA AGM can be found at http://tinyurl.com/oj6a8p