Yemen IATA Office inaugurated [Archives:2005/900/Business & Economy]
BY MOHAMMED AL-JABRI
YEMEN TIMES STAFF
Mr. Giovanni Bisignani General Director and CEO of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) inaugurated last Monday IATA's office in Yemen and affirmed that IATA office would help air carriers in different fields. He pointed out that IATA had not just started its activities in Yemen with the opening of this office, but it has been active in this field over the last six months. ” We used to follow up Yemen from our office in Amman. Yemen IATA office is number 100 worldwide. And we are here to increase the support of aviation services for air carriers.” said Mr. Giovanni.
Captain Abdul-Khaleq Al-Qadi, Chairman of Yemenia Airways, said that the presence of IATA in Yemen would ” give Yemen a prominent place on the map of world air carriers.” On his part, Mr. Giovanni appreciated the positive response of the civil Aviation Authority in reconstructing the Yemeni air routes, which would help make these routes shorter and consequently decrease costs for other air carriers that organize flights to Yemen. He also thanked Yemenia Airways for its cooperation in applying the safety systems set by IATA.
In a press conference held on this occasion, Mr. Giovanni gave an overall explanation about the activities of IATA in Yemen, its role in world civil aviation and services it offers around the world. He said IATA represents 270 international air carriers from 143 countries, comprising 94% of international scheduled air traffic. In Arab countries, IATA has 22 international member airlines that carry over 55 million passenger annually, operating around 500 aircraft.
Concerning the services of IATA, Mr. Giovanni said IATA works as a mediator between air carriers and travel and tourism agents. In other words, IATA distributes tickets on behalf of the air carriers. IATA also helps civil aviations with regard to air safety. It also collaborates with those air carriers in order to reduce flight costs.
IATA, he added, is doing its best to effect improvements in operational safety, and so it has adopted a number of projects like Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP), Simplifying the Business, and International Operational Safety Audit (IOSA).
Such programs would help international air carriers achieve safety standards.
Mr. Giovanni appreciated the role of Yemenia Airways in applying the IOSA program under the supervision of an international air carrier. IOSA is designed to assess the operational management and control systems of an airline. IATA, thus, is doing its best to achieve effective and cost efficient security measures. Airlines and regulators will achieve benefits from IOSA.
On the other hand, Mr. Giovanni made clear that Simplifying the Business is a big project through which IATA moves forward. It aims at achieving US$ 6.5 billion in savings and it also makes travel more convenient for passengers. ” Over the last 60 years, IATA used to carry 9 million passengers worldwide. But last year IATA carried 1.8 billion passengers worldwide. It is a massive change to better services,” said Mr. Giovanni.
IATA will also concentrate on five main projects. These are: 100% e-ticketing by the end of 2007,which means that no one will use paper tickets by the end of 2007; radio frequency identification for baggage management; bar coded boarding passes and common use of self-service kiosks for check-in.
Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP) is a system used for simplifying the selling, reporting procedures of IATA Accredited Passenger Sales Agents. It also helps improve financial control and cash flow for BSP airlines. This system is operated in 150 countries worldwide.
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