Dubai Hosts 80th IATA Annual General Meeting to Ponder Industry’s Future
(AWP) - Aviation sector leaders from all over the world are meeting in Dubai at the 80th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the World Air Transport Summit, held from June 2 to 4.
The event, convened for the first time in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is expected to be attended by more than 1,500 leaders of the aviation sector and government officials.
Figuring high on the summit’s agenda will be the means to reach net zero carbon emissions by the year 2050, as well as solutions to accelerate that process, particularly those related to the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and eliminating carbon emissions.
Kamil al-Awadhi, IATA’s Regional Vice-President for Africa and Middle East (AME), said that SAF does not exist on the local market at all, because each drop of SAF has been purchased by aviation companies.
He urged countries and corporations manufacturing fuel to “play their roles and make SAF, so that aviation companies can reach net zero carbon emissions by the year 2050.”
Meanwhile, Peter Cerda, IATA’s Regional Vice-President for the Americas, said, “What we see is that in some cases, we build aviation stations to meet the short-term needs of our industry, instead of considering the long term.”
“As soon as we open a station, we believe it will be large enough for the maintenance of operations for several years. However, in a matter of only one year, the station becomes saturated. We need to make sure that we build purpose-appropriate stations capable of growing without the need to implement restrictions in these regions,” he indicated.
Discussions will involve an assessment of progress in the safety sphere, as well as financial sustainability and other key industry topics.
According to IATA, the global aviation sector contributes to the employment of three million people directly, in addition to offering 320 million indirect job opportunities in travel and tourism, amounting to 10% of the total global economic activity.