Cairo – 20 October evening – AACO 43rd General Meeting was held today at the Intercontinental Citystars Hotel in Cairo under the Patronage of His Excellency Ahmed Shafik, Minister of Egyptian Civil Aviation, and by kind invitation of Eng. Hussein Massoud, AACO Chairman and Chairman & CEO of EgyptAir Holding Company.
The day was marked by the presence of one of the largest gatherings in the history of AACO, where AACO members’ Director Generals and Chief Executive Officers attended the meeting representing 24 member airlines, in addition to representatives from 49 industry leading companies partners with AACO from aircraft and engine manufacturers to fuel providers, aircraft leasing companies, global distribution systems, information technology providers, ground handling companies, and others, with the participation of the Arab League of States and regional and international associations and industry experts, as well as a number of dignitaries from the airline industry.
Since the last AACO AGM held in Jeddah, AACO has reworked the internal methodology and workflow under the scope of a new vision and mission, by initiating and implementing specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound synergic targets with a mission to serve the Arab airlines, represent their common interest and be the catalyst for their cooperation. This new methodology was reflected in the annual report of AACO that was distributed to the attendees and that sheds light on the issues facing the air transport industry and AACO’s role as a tool in the hands of its members to deal with these issues. The attendees also received AACO’s Arab Air Transport Statistics (AATS) publication.
Eng Hussein Massoud, AACO Chairman, chaired the working sessions of the General Meeting. AACO Secretary General, Mr. Abdul Wahab Teffaha, presented his report to the AGM about the state of the industry, whereby he focused on the environmental impact of aviation especially following the recent ICAO 37th Assembly resolution on climate change. The Secretary General also focused on the importance of air transport liberalization in removing restrictions on market access and ownership of airlines, and the growth of Arab airlines and the stance of some CEOs of global airlines that are calling upon their governments to take measures to restrain this growth, whereby the Secretary General called the world nations and their airlines to stay the course of liberalization, and not to pick and choose what falls in the interest of their national airlines, noting that the greatest benefit derived from that is that of the consumer from the competitiveness between airlines which should continue to be the focus of regulators.
AACO’s Secretary General report was followed by a keynote address by Mr. Raymond Benjamin, Secretary General of ICAO about aviation and climate change, followed by a keynote address by IATA Director General and CEO, Mr. Giovanni Bisignani about Industry Issues. Following Mr. Bisignani's speech, Eng. Massoud and Mr. Teffaha presented him each with a farewell memento since this is the last AACO AGM Mr. Bisignani will attend before his retirement next summer from IATA.
During the day, AACO members held a closed session, whereby Eng. Hussein Massoud, AACO Chairman, presented a report about AACO’s Executive Committee work in supervising the overall work of AACO. AACO members discussed the latest developments impacting the business of Arab airlines with climate change at the forefront of these issues. In this regard, the AGM adopted a resolution about aviation and environmental issues, attached to this press release. The AGM also discussed in this session internal issues related to AACO’s work and the scope of cooperation among its members, whereby the AGM has decided on launching a cooperation project between the Arab airlines for the joint management and acquisition of spare parts.
In the afternoon, the Joint Aviation Forum was held gathering distinguished panelists who shared their views about “Meeting the Environmental Challenge”. The discussion panel was moderated by Mr. Christopher Surgenor, Editor & Publisher of GreenAir Online, with the participation of Mr. Raymond Benjamin, Secretary General, ICAO, Mr. Andrew Parker, Senior Vice President for Public, Industry, International & Environment Affairs, Emirates Airlines, Captain, Dr.h.c. Chris Schroeder, Senior Manager Corporate Social Responsibility, Environment & Fuel Optimization, Qatar Airways, Mr. Paul Steele, Executive Director, ATAG, and Mr. Richard Jory, Regional GM, ME, South & Central Asia, Africa, Shell Aviation.
AACO AGM thanked, and delegated Eng. Hussein Massoud, who thanked, on behalf of AACO, His Excellency Ahmed Shafik, Minister of Egyptian Civil Aviation for his patronage.
AACO member airlines also praised AACO’s chairman for his performance during the past year and for his efficient chairmanship of the 43rd Annual General Meeting and for EgyptAir’s generous hospitality for all the delegates present at the AGM.
AACO 43rd AGM Resolution on Issues related to the Environment
Firstly, AACO 43rd AGM discussed the developments related to the civil aviation impact on the environment, especially following the results of the 37th Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the positions announced thereafter. The AGM has taken the following covenants into account:
1.Article 2.2 of Kyoto Protocol states that the parties included in Annex I shall pursue limitation or reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases from aviation through the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), noting that none of the Arab states are listed in Annex I.
2.Chicago Convention calls for non-discrimination between operators.
3.Chicago Convention also states that every State has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory.
4.ICAO has earlier recognized the special circumstances of airlines in developing nations, whereby they were exempted from noise restrictions for seven years.
5.ICAO 36th Assembly in 2007 adopted a resolution that called upon the countries that plan to implement special schemes for aviation’s emissions to do that under mutual consent.
Secondly, AACO welcomes the efficiency targets as adopted by ICAO within the initial scope of the principles of the ICAO 37th Assembly Resolution on Climate Change. These targets are:
1-To achieve 2% global annual average fuel efficiency improvement until 2020.
2-To achieve an aspirational global fuel efficiency improvement of 2% per annum from 2021 to 2050.
3-To strive to achieve a collective medium term global aspirational goal of Carbon Neutral Growth from 2020.
4-These targets are not attributed to any individual state or operators thereof.
Thirdly, AACO welcomes in principle the following provisions in the resolution that are considered part and parcel of the implementation of the above mentioned targets:
1)Recognition of different circumstances of states and the need to provide necessary support to developing countries including financial support, technology transfer, and capacity building.
2)To take into account the maturity of the aviation markets.
3)The strong recognition of the need to respond to the requirements and needs of developing nations airlines in unison, which emphasize that all developing countries should be treated equally as per the Kyoto protocol. We do not support the “de minimis” exemption concept for Market Based Measures based on a state’s share of global international aviation RTKs because it differentiates the treatment to developing nations.
4)Countries to recognize past and future investments of airlines in reducing their carbon footprint when designing and implementing market based measures to deal with aviation’s impact on climate change.
5)Recognition of ICAO that the emissions may increase due to the expected growth in international air traffic until lower emitting technologies and fuels are developed.
Fourthly, AACO sees that all parties that have implemented a Cap & Trade scheme should abide by the above announced covenants and provisions.
Fifthly, AACO 43rd AGM mandates the Secretary General and the Environmental Policy Group to work closely with the Arab Civil Aviation Commission to deal with current or future emissions measures within the scope of the above mentioned covenants and provisions, and to follow up on all issues related to this question on different levels and to report back to the Executive Committee regarding any developments for guidance.