Air Transport: IATA’s new boss

   After half a decade of chairing and leading the International Air Transport Association, Tony Tyler has officially passed the torch. The ascension of Alexandre de Juniac, former chairman and chief executive officer of Air France/KLM, was made official during the three-day event in Ireland. Tyler will say goodbye forever on Sept. 1, but he used his closing remarks at the 72nd Annual General Meeting to mark his transition away from the organization.
   Addressing the crowd of airline members, Tyler thanked them for the past five years, saying he cherished his time at the top of the organization. “And I shall cherish my last three months in post before I hand over to Alexandre, who, I am sure, will continue to make IATA a very relevant association for all of you,” he said.
   Tyler’s immediate predecessor, Giovanni Bisignani, held the top post at IATA for more than twice as long, serving for 11 years. In fact, a cursory look at the tenures of IATA’s six leaders shows that Tyler has served the shortest amount of time. 
   In a press release announcing the succession, de Juniac said he had “big shoes to fill,” but that he was happy and ready for the job.
   “I know how challenging it is to run an airline and how much airlines depend on IATA to support their business—to safely process industry money, to deliver effective advocacy, to lead global initiatives and to provide relevant products and services,” he said. “My aim is to help airlines to be even more successful businesses creating even greater economic and social value.”
    De Juniac will inherit an IATA that is still confronting a lackluster air cargo industry. According to its latest figures, IATA is preparing for cargo yields to fall by 8 percent for the year. Revenue wise, 2016 will generate $49.6 billion, a drop of more than $3 billion from the year before. Most of this revenue still comes from the Asia-Pacific airlines, which account for 40 percent of the global cargo market. Searching for signs of good news in IATA’s monthly numbers, overall tonnage did grow 3.2 percent in April, when compared to April 2015. At the same time, however, capacity rose 6.6 percent. North American airlines, which accounted for 20.5 percent of all cargo activity in April, saw a 4 percent rise in demand and a 9.2 percent increase in capacity. The increase in April follows March’s 0.8 percent decline. 
   For now, though, de Juniac is still running Air France-KLM, and dealing with a planned pilot strike that would cost the airline “tens of millions of euros,” according to reports. De Juniac also confronted a strike in 2014 that went on for two weeks. De Juniac, who became Air France’s boss in 2011, also has a complicated history with freighters. The airline’s freighter fleet lost the company 120 million euros in 2013 and nearly 100 million euros in 2014. During those heavy-loss years, Air France boasted more than 20 freighters. At the end of the year, de Juniac has said there will only be five freighters in the fleet. Last year, losses due to cargo operations equaled 42 million euros.   
   During the AGM, airline representatives collaborated with other industry participants on issues plaguing passenger and cargo air transport. In a reaction to recent terrorist events, IATA adopted a resolution that asks for greater information sharing and intelligence cooperation among governments. The resolution also asked that airline and airport representatives take a more cooperative role in security.
   In the past, Tyler has made an effort to single out the importance of air cargo among massive airline events aimed almost exclusively at the passenger side of the business. Security and the environment affect every aspect of the airline industry, but talk of freighter-specific issues is usually kept to a minimum. During his Director General’s Report, Tyler pushed to bring air freight communication up to date.
   “The processes supporting global cargo are remnants of the last century,” he said, before noting that IATA is pushing for 56 percent of airlines to transition to electronic air waybills by the end of the year. E-freight and the electronic air waybill have long been one of IATA’s main projects, and it seems like the process is finally gaining much-needed steam, but even with the current progress, Tyler left the assembled industry stakeholders with a request.
   “You can help us to help you by prioritizing e-air waybill conversion within your airlines and letting your partners in the value chain know how important it is to you,” he said.  
   As with many processes in the air cargo industry, IATA’s big ideas will take big collaboration. While it seems like everyone in the industry has been talking about partnership for years, perhaps with all the new challenges in the airline industry, stakeholders are starting to listen. 
   “Partnership is essential for the continuous reinforcement of the foundation stones of safety, security, global standards and sustainability,” Tyler said. “It’s also important for our 264 members and the entire value chain to work together. Because together we can send a proud message that aviation is a force for good.”