A global airlines industry group is preparing a set of recommendations and options on aircraft tracking to be submitted to the United Nations specialized agency on civil aviation in September, on the back of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is preparing the recommendations, which will be submitted to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
“The loss of MH370 points us to an immediate need. A large commercial airliner going missing without trace for so long is unprecedented in modern aviation. And it must not happen again,” IATA director general and CEO Tony Tyler said while opening the 70th Annual General Meeting in Doha on Monday.
“IATA, ICAO and experts from around the world are working together to agree on the best options to improve global tracking capabilities. In September, a draft of recommendations will be given to ICAO.”
Tyler said data would guide this effort and other safety improvements as IATA was moving forward with the Global Aviation Data Management (GADM) project. The project will create the world’s largest resource of operational information, he continued.
“Looking further ahead, our ultimate goal is to predict the potential for accidents and ensure they don’t happen,” he said.
“This is not science fiction. The growing data in GADM is one of the building blocks. Each new data contribution and every improvement in our analytical capabilities moves this closer to reality.
Akbar al Baker, CEO of Qatar Airways, which hosted the Doha meeting, said the technology was already available to track flying aircraft with telemetry being sent down to ground stations.
“Qatar Airways is keen to explore this,” he told a press briefing after the opening ceremony, which was also attended by Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and Prime Minister Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani.
Baker said continuous data transmission would help ease the task of locating an aircraft. “We want an extremely safe environment for our crew and passengers,” he said.
Other than safety, Tyler also talked about other challenges, including financial sustainability, security, infrastructure, customer experience and regulations.
Tyler said airlines were expected to reap a collective global profit of US$18 billion.
“That sounds impressive but the brutal economic reality is that on revenues of $746 billion we will earn an average net margin of just 2.4 percent,” he said, or just $5.65 per passenger.
Despite the rather bleak figure, Tyler said aviation would still contribute some 1 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP) this year, or some $750 billion by connecting an estimated 3.3 billion passengers and 52 million tons of cargo over 50,000 routes with 100,000 flights per day.
“Today, aviation is the life blood of the global economy. The industry supports over 52 million jobs and $2.4 trillion in annual economic activity,” he added.
IATA chief economist Brian Pearce told a media briefing that despite difficult business conditions, airlines were still taking deliveries of 1,400 new aircraft, representing an investment of $150 billion. With an estimated fleet of 25,851 aircraft by the end of this year, there will be some 3.5 million available seats.
He also said that more fuel efficient aircraft were needed given high jet fuel prices.
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