79th IATA AGM: News Coverage
IATA urges two South Asia nations to repatriate funds to airlines
June 6th 2023
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) urged the governments of Bangladesh and Pakistan to abide by international agreements and treaty obligations to enable airlines to repatriate these funds arising from the sale of tickets, cargo space, and other activities, warning that blocked funds are a threat to airline connectivity in the affected markets. Read More » The funds blocked by Bangladesh tolled $214.1 million, while the funds blocked by Pakistan $188.2 million. “In this time of recovering from the pandemic, financial resilience is crucial in investing and building business in a sustainable way”, said Philip Goh, IATA’s Regional VP, Asia-Pacific, explaining the need for governments to work with industry to resolve this situation.
IATA highlights the need for safety awareness of Lithium Battery Cargo shipments in Asia
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) encouraged those involved in the supply chain to enhance their competencies in handling lithium battery shipments, recognizing Asia as the major lithium battery production hub, where a high portion of dangerous goods carried by the regional carriers are lithium batteries. To help to improve compliance with dangerous goods regulations IATA developed the CEIV lithium battery program and DG AutoCheck digital tools.
Asia-Pacific is the most unpredictable region in IATA Outlook
Asia-Pacific is the biggest uncertainty in the economic outlook for the airline industry, said Marie Owens Thomsen, IATA’s Chief Economist and Senior VP of Sustainability. The key issue to observe is the recovery of the China market and how other countries react to the opening of China. In the year 2022, China’s global share in international traffic was 1% compared to 9% in the year 2019, its global share in domestic traffic was 17% compared to 25% in 2019, the share in international traffic within Asia was 5% compared to 24% in the year 2019 and the share in domestic traffic within Asia was 44% compared to 54% in the year 2019. These figures describe the scale of changes in the market but also present the potential of the recovery, said IATA.
