What’s New

Leaders from airline associations worldwide met in Brussels on January 23–24 at Eurocontrol Headquarters. Participants noted the importance of the airline industry internationally as a key driver of the global economy, with more than 3.6 per cent of global GDP and 66 million jobs worldwide supported by aviation.

The leaders agreed that the sharing of best practices has helped lead to high levels of safety worldwide, and also shared initiatives to advance the industry on other critical fronts, including ensuring adequate capacity for air traffic demand, safely incorporating drones into the airspace and educating governments across the world to ensure that taxation and regulatory systems do not hinder the industry’s ability to grow and support the traveling and shipping public.

The group also discussed initiatives to attract talent into the industry to address growing, global workforce demands and ensure long-term sustainability, and to enable the broadest range of the world’s population, such as women, to access airline industry careers. The leaders additionally affirmed their commitment to providing leadership on the key issues of safety, security and the environment going forward.
 
Recognising the challenges ahead, the group agreed to redouble their joint education and advocacy efforts on all fronts and acknowledged the importance of partnering with governments across the world to ensure the best outcomes for the travelling and shipping public.
 
The airline associations found the dialogue and exchange immensely helpful and have agreed to meet annually in the future.