News from IATA AGM Part 2

More News coming from the 79th IATA AGM being held in Istanbul, Turkey.

• Emirates to Host 80th IATA AGM in Dubai
• 2023 Winners of IATA Diversity & Inclusion Awards Announced
• IATA Urges States to Provide Timely, Thorough and Public Accident Reports
• SAF Production Set for Continued Growth but Needs Policy Support to Diversify Sources of Production
• IATA Expands Turbulence Aware Platform
  
  

Emirates to Host 80th IATA AGM in Dubai

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that Emirates will host the 80th IATA Annual General Meeting (AGM) and World Air Transport Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on 2-4 June 2024.

“We look forward to gathering the aviation industry in Dubai for the 80th IATA AGM in 2024. Dubai is a dynamic city and a major aviation hub connecting the world. The UAE’s positive approach to aviation has built a strong airline with a strong hub airport. Together, these make an enormously powerful and positive contribution to the society and economy of the UAE. Holding the AGM in Dubai will be a showcase of what can be achieved by aviation with supportive government policies and decisions,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General.

“Emirates is delighted to host the 80th IATA AGM and World Air Transport Summit. We look forward to welcoming all our aviation industry colleagues to Dubai in 2024,” said Sir Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline.

The decision to host the 80th IATA AGM was made by the 79th AGM in Istanbul.

This will be the first time the UAE and Dubai will host the global gathering of aviation's topleaders.

2023 Winners of IATA Diversity & Inclusion Awards Announced

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced the winners of the 2023 edition of the IATA Diversity & Inclusion Awards.

• Inspirational Role Model: Poppy Khoza – Director of Civil Aviation, South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA)
• High Flyer: Camila Turrieta – Chair of the Diversity, Equity, Belonging, and Inclusion Committee, Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), and First Officer, JetBlue Airways
• Diversity & Inclusion Team: Virgin Atlantic Airways

“In their fourth year, the IATA Diversity & Inclusion Awards play an important role in recognizing the work done by those who go above and beyond in engraining diversity and inclusion in the aviation industry. Through breaking taboos to introducing innovations and changing the status quo, this year’s winners exemplify the true nature of the industry: resilience, persistence and unhindered motivation to drive change,” said Karen Walker, Editor in Chief, Air Transport World and chair of the judging panel.

The other members of the judging panel include the winners of the 2022 awards: Güliz Öztürk, CEO, Pegasus Airlines; Kanchana Gamage, Founder and Director of the Aviatrix Project, and Alina Aronberga, SVP Human Resources, airBaltic.

“I congratulate the winners of the 2023 awards. By their example, they are leading the way to a gender balanced aviation industry. They have pushed boundaries to demonstrate that diversity and inclusion is fundamental to business success. Congratulations to three truly inspirational winners. Women are still under-represented in aviation, but with the help and example of these and previous award winners, we are making progress,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General.

Qatar Airways is the sponsor of the Diversity & Inclusion Awards for the fifth consecutive year. Each winner receives a prize of $25,000, payable to the winner in each of the categories or to their nominated charities.

The 2023 IATA Diversity & Inclusion Awards were presented during the World Air Transport Summit (WATS) which followed the 79th IATA Annual General Meeting in Istanbul, Türkiye.

Profiles:

• High Flyer: Camila Turrieta – Chair of the Diversity, Equity, Belonging, and Inclusion Committee, Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), and First Officer, JetBlue Airways

The international respect for Poppy Khoza was evident in her unanimous election to serve as President for the 41st Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization in 2022.  She was the first ever woman to hold that role in ICAO’s 78-year history.

At SACAA, Khoza’s work focuses on providing equal opportunities for women and she has led the transformation of the organization which now boasts women in 50% of executive roles. In her work, Khoza spares no effort in mentoring and coaching other women to challenge the status quo and create a more gender balanced aviation industry.

She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Aviation Sector and Regional Leader Award, Best Chief Executive Officer Award (2015 and 2018). She was also named the Business Leader of the Year during the annual Oliver Empowerment Awards (2018).

• High Flyer: Camila Turrieta – Chair of the Diversity, Equity, Belonging, and Inclusion Committee, Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), and First Officer, JetBlue Airways

At ALPA, Turrieta is the voice for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives for the Association’s 63,000 pilots at 40 airlines. She leads ALPA’s efforts to use gender inclusive terms, expand the Association’s anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policy to promote an environment of inclusiveness in the piloting profession. This led to the FAA requesting her assistance in creating an inclusive culture through positive regulatory changes within the aviation sector.

Camila is a leader and mentor through her work with non-profit affinity organizations such as the Latino Pilots Association, Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals, Women in Aviation, and the International Society of Women Airline Pilots which have the common goal of promoting the piloting profession to underrepresented and marginalized communities.

All this led Camila to receive the President’s Call to Service Award under former US Presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama.

• Diversity & Inclusion Team: Virgin Atlantic Airways

Virgin Atlantic Airways is a true pioneer in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion. To support the refresh of the airline’s “Be Yourself” strategy, the company introduced bold changes which included:

• Revising policies to allow visible tattoos while in uniform,
• Launching the reasonable workplace adjustment policy to ensure its employees with disabilities get the support they need,
• Transforming recruitment to remove barriers by focusing on inclusion and accessibility.

These changes were supported with digital training to create awareness and enable confident conversations among employees on the Be Yourself strategy. As a result of the successful implementation of the Be Yourself strategy, Virgin Atlantic’s internal employee network membership has increased over 120% while the company’s employee engagement scores for inclusion increased by 6 percentage points.

Alongside this, Virgin Atlantic Airways relaunched its pioneering “Passport to Change” program, which aims to address inequity in educational learning within local communities.

IATA Urges States to Provide Timely, Thorough and Public Accident Reports

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) called on governments to live up to longstanding international treaty obligations to publish timely and thorough aviation accident reports. Safety is aviation’s highest priority. Failure to publish prompt and complete accident investigation reports deprives operators, equipment manufacturers, regulators, infrastructure providers and other concerned stakeholders of critical information that could make flying even safer.

“The accident investigation process is one of our most important learning tools when building global safety standards. But to learn from an accident, we need reports that are complete, accessible and timely,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General.

The requirements of the Convention of International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention) Annex 13 are clear. States in charge of an accident investigation must:

• Submit a preliminary report to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) within 30 days of the accident.
• Publish the final report, that is publicly available, as soon as possible and within 12 months of the accident.
• Publish interim statements annually should a final report not be possible within 12 months.

Only 96 of the 214 accident investigations during the period 2018-2022 conform with the requirements of the Chicago Convention. Just 31 reports were published in less than one year of the accident with the majority (58) taking between 1–3 years. In addition to the fact that final reports regularly take more than a year, interim statements often provide little more than what was presented in the preliminary report.

“Over the past five years, fewer than half of the required accident reports meet the standards for thoroughness and timeliness. This is an inexcusable violation of requirements stated clearly in the Chicago Convention. As an industry we must raise our voice to governments in defense of the accident investigation process enshrined in Annex 13. And we count on ICAO to remind states that the publication of a complete accident report is not optional, it is an obligation under Annex 13 of the Chicago Convention,” said Walsh.

SAF Production Set for Continued Growth but Needs Policy Support to Diversify Sources of Production

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced its expectation for overall renewable fuel production to reach an estimated capacity of at least 69 billion liters (55 million tonnes) by 2028. Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) will comprise a portion of this growing output which is being achieved through new renewable fuel refineries and the expansion of existing facilities. Importantly, the expected production has a wide geographic footprint covering North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

“The expected production increase is extremely encouraging. Seeing this, we need governments to act to ensure that SAF gets its fair production share. That means, in the first instance, production incentives, to support aviation’s energy transition. And we need continued approval for more diversification of methods and feedstocks available for SAF production. With these two measures successfully in place, we can be confident that the expected 2028 production levels will be realistically aligned with our recently published roadmaps to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. That is important as we are counting on SAF to provide about 62% of the carbon mitigation needed in 2050,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General.

Trends supporting this optimistic outlook are already visible. In 2022, SAF production tripled to some 300 million liters (240,000 tonnes) and project announcements for potential SAF producers are rapidly growing. IATA counts over 130 relevant renewable fuel projects announced by more than 85 producers across 30 countries. Each of these projects has either announced the intent or commitment to produce SAF within their wider product slate of renewable fuels. Typically, there is a 3 –5-year lag between a project announcement and its commercialization date. This implies that further renewable fuel capacity out until 2030 could still be announced over the following years.

If renewable energy production reaches 69 billion liters by 2028 as estimated, the trajectory to 100 billion liters (80 million tonnes) by 2030 would be on track. If just 30% of that produced SAF, the industry could achieve 30 billion liters (24 million tonnes) of SAF production by 2030.

“Achieving the necessary SAF percentage output from these new and expanding facilities is not a given. But with governments the world-over agreeing at ICAO to a long-term aspirational goal (LTAG) of net zero by 2050, they now share accountability for aviation’s decarbonization. That means establishing a policy framework to ensure that aviation gets the needed share of renewable energy production in SAF,” said Walsh.

Policy Support & Government Investment

The case for diversification, within current sustainability criteria, is clear. At present, it is expected that 85% of future SAF volume over the next five years will be derived from just one of nine certified pathways, being Hydrotreated Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA), which is dependent on limited availability of feedstock such as waste fat, oil and grease feedstocks (FOGs, recognized by industry as second-generation feedstock).

IATA identifies three main avenues to achieve SAF diversification:

1. Scale already certified SAF pathways, such as Alcohol-to-Jet (AtJ) & Fischer-Tropsch (FT)
2. Accelerated R&D for SAF production pathways that are currently in development
3. Scale up of feedstock/feedstock conversion technology

Accelerating these avenues to commercialized levels will require policy leadership from governments. To start, there is an impending need for the harmonization of core SAF policies, as a means of reducing administrative, logistical and geographic barriers to entry for new market entrants, including producers, feedstock providers, and offtakers.

More fundamentally, the challenge is finding the capital needed to fund the development of new technology and production facilities. Governments must look at the broader sustainability picture with these investments. SAF can be produced from surplus forestry and agricultural residues, municipal solid waste, food waste and wet wastes (third generation feedstocks). Producing SAF from these can create long-term return on investment opportunities for governments, with the potential of financing the clean-up of the environment, supporting developing economies and delivering a future-proofed intersection of energy transition and energy security.

Passenger Support

A recent IATA survey revealed significant public support for SAF. Some 85% of travelers agreed that governments should provide incentives for airlines to use SAF.

“People have experienced governments’ role in the transition to green energy for electricity. They now expect it for SAF. The G7 leaders are among the latest to reiterate their understanding that SAF is critical for sustainable aviation. Now they must support their declarations with effective policies. To promote SAF production, there are many tried and tested tools including tax credits, grants, or even direct investments in emerging technologies and solutions. The market is there. Airlines want to purchase SAF. Anything to meaningfully incentivize SAF production will be a step forward,” added Walsh.

IATA Expands Turbulence Aware Platform

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that ANA and WestJet have joined its Turbulence Aware Platform on the sidelines of the 79th IATA Annual General Meeting.

Turbulence Aware was launched in 2018 to help airlines mitigate the impact of turbulence which is a leading cause of passenger and crew injuries and higher fuel costs each year. The platform pools anonymized turbulence data from thousands of flights operated by participating airlines. The real-time, accurate information enables pilots and dispatchers to choose optimal flight paths, avoiding turbulence and flying at optimum levels to maximize fuel efficiency and thereby reduce CO2 carbon emissions.

The challenge of managing turbulence is expected to grow as climate change continues to impact weather patterns. This has implications for both safety and efficiency of flight. Turbulence Aware is a significant improvement in turbulence reporting and avoiding excess fuel consumption.

“Accurate and timely data empowers crews to improve safety by avoiding turbulence. The more contributors we have, the more everyone benefits. The addition of ANA and WestJet enhances our coverage especially in Asia Pacific and North America,” said Walsh.

At present, 20 airlines participate in the IATA Turbulence Aware Platform with more than 1,900 aircraft providing data daily. In 2022, a total of 31 million reports were generated.

• ANA will initially start providing data from its Boeing 737 aircraft with plans to expand to the rest of the fleet in the future.
• WestJet is already capturing data from 24 aircraft and will expand this to 60 aircraft in the coming three years.

To gather additional feedback from airlines and engage with OEMs and other solution providers, IATA is organizing a Turbulence Aware User Forum, taking place at the WestJet Campus in Calgary, Canada on June 19-20, 2023.