MIAMI, Florida - ALTA Airline Leaders Forum and its 34th
Annual General Meeting (AGM), celebrated this year at the Atlantis
Hotel in Nassau, Bahamas, came to a close this past Friday after
showcasing perspectives from airline CEOs and industry experts on topics
and trends expected to impact the industry and its growth for the next
decades.
The
Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA) gathered
over 500 delegates from airlines and aviation-related organizations from
throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia to discuss the state of the
industry, as well as to review opportunities both to overcome existing
obstacles related to infrastructure and the regulatory environment, as
well as to enhance the growth forecasted for the region for the next
twenty years. Best global and regional practices were shared to
understand how to optimize planning for airports, promoting a
comprehensive vision of the industry´s need and the catalysts for change
for the better of aviation.
Though
the growth of the region´s air traffic doubles that of Latin American
and Caribbean´s economies, the industry stakeholders express concern
that the impact of a slowdown may be exacerbated by the barriers
presented by inefficiencies in processes and infrastructure, ultimately
impacting the performance of the region´s industry.
ALTA
and several government entities and air transport associations
throughout the region have made significant strides towards the
improvement of safety, which can exemplify the positive outcomes of
working hand in hand to overcome inefficiencies. The association firmly
believes the collaboration of the key players in the industry can bring
about similarly substantial gains to the improvement of efficiency in
the region´s aviation operations, including customs and immigration
processes.
The
Forum also brought to the fore challenges faced by the Caribbean
region´s airlines, particularly taxation and language barriers, among
others. Addressing these issues is sure to enhance the Caribbean´s
potential as it geographically nestles between two important traffic
generating masses, represented by a population of over 900 million.
Eduardo
Iglesias, ALTA´s Executive Director and Chairman of the conference
stated, "Our objective here is to make sure that we set out a roadmap
facilitating the exploration and discovery of opportunities. These
opportunities may lie in technology, innovation, shifting of mindsets,
strategic relations with key partners, benchmarking off the best, and
embracing change. It is clear that we continue to have challenges but
also know that we are entering an exciting era during which we will
avail ourselves of tools that will propel the aviation industry in spite
of existing challenges."
In
addition, ALTA recapitulated the roster of new members for this year,
which included Omni Air International, Rolls-Royce, Seabury and Sky
Airline.
Following ALTA´s 34th
AGM, it was announced that the association´s Executive Committee was
reelected, consisting therefore of the same members for the term
2014-2015:
President - Andrés Conesa, CEO, AeroMéxico
Vice President - Enrique Cueto, CEO, LATAM Airlines Group, S.A.
Fabio Villegas - CEO, Avianca
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Airlines
Albert Kluyver - CEO, InselAir
Mariano Recalde - CEO, Aerolíneas Argentinas S.A.
Paulo Kakinoff - CEO, GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes
You
may view the stories that developed during the 11th ALTA Airline
Leaders Forum in the three Airline Business Daily editions via the
following links:
Flight Global 11th ALTA Forum Daily 1
Flight Global 11th ALTA Forum Daily 2
Flight Global 11th ALTA Forum Daily 3
The
2015 ALTA Airline Leaders Forum and 35th ALTA AGM will be held in San
Juan, Puerto Rico. For more information about the ALTA Airline Leaders
Forum please visit www.alta.aero.