Growing demand requires increased collaboration from the aviation industry, Airports Council International (ACI) World Director General Angela Gittens told the fourth World Aviation Conference this week.
Gittens delivered a keynote speech at the conference, during which she highlighted the need to protect non-commercial sources of revenue for the industry, to secure infrastructure financing, to increase efficiency with technological innovation, and to press forward with environmental stewardship practices.
“Aeronautical revenues do not fully cover capital and operating costs, and airports rely on non-aeronautical revenues for their financial viability,” Gittens said. “Worldwide, retail concessions remain the leading source of non-aeronautical revenue for airports. In the short-term, we’ll need to be mindful of the current and emerging disruptions in the wider world on some of these key sources, such as e-commerce and the sharing economy, and work together to find new business models that evolve in step with wider trends and passenger expectations. This is directly relevant to an airports’ bottom line and their ability to finance and expand their infrastructure capacity to meet growing demand for air transport.”
She cited forecasts showing that global passenger traffic demand is likely to double by 2037, with a projected growth rate of 3.8 percent per year. More of the world’s population seems set on travel and governments cannot always keep up with incentivization, so the aviation industry, according to Gittens, needs to work to explore more private investment options. With technology also evolving, ACI is pushing for new technological innovation and common purpose.
Aviation is a complex, interconnected system, Gittens pointed out. A global system. She emphasized that every sector of that system must work to diminish its contribution to climate change and reduce human impact while continuing to deliver on growth.
“The drivers of demand are there; the question is will we be able to accommodate the demand so we can deliver the socio-economic benefits of growth,” Gittens said.