ITB Aviation Day to Shed Light on the Future of Air Transport

Despite adverse operating conditions over the last couple of years, including high fuel prices, terrorist threats, natural disasters, and new taxes on passengers and airlines, air transport has remained resilient. Even better, it is booming again.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) recently released its January-November traffic results, which pointed to year-on-year passenger traffic growth for international scheduled air transport services of 5.8 percent –measured in terms of revenue passenger-km (RPK)– and an average passenger load factor system-wide of 76.1 percent.

In a recent briefing, Giovanni Bisignani, IATA Director General and CEO, said that IATA was even expecting a recovery in its members’ financial performance. IATA airlines are expected to have recorded a combined loss of just under $500 million in 2006 –well down on 2005- and they should become profitable in 2007. This would mark the first year of profitability since 2000.

Over the next few years the airline industry will continue its decade-old restructuring, which has so far contributed to making the industry more cost-efficient, as well as reshaping all the elements of the air travel experience for customers.

The ITB Aviation day, which is now considered one of the leading events in the annual industry calendar, will focus on all the changes that have taken, and are taking place within the airline industry and the impact these will have in the future.

Passengers are already able to check in and print their boarding passes at home before departure, helping to reduce the length of check-in queues at airports. The mobility solutions market is growing at an extraordinary rate.

ITB Aviation Day is being organized in cooperation with Flugrevue, the event’s media partner, and will be chaired by Prof Dr Adrian von Dornberg, Professor of Travel & Transport at the University of Applied Sciences.