IATA Calls for Better Cooperation between Airlines, Airports

IATA Calls for Better Cooperation between Airlines, Airports

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is calling for better cooperation between airports and airlines to make aviation, safer, more secure and user friendly. “We need a common and forward-looking agenda that builds on past successes and puts innovation at the heart of our common issues,” said Toby Tyler, IATA’s director general and CEO.

Tyler spoke to the world’s airlines at the Airports Council International (ACI) World Annual General Assembly in Marrakech, Morocco. He talked about six areas where airports and airlines can enhance cooperation to innovate and deliver value -- safety, security, improving the customer experience, the environment, infrastructure investments, environment and cost-efficiency.

“Airlines and airports worked together to improve efficiency and passenger convenience through IATA’s Simplifying the Business program, starting with e-ticketing, common use self-service (CUSS) kiosks and bar-coded boarding passes,” said Tyler. “These are three enablers that give us an enormous opportunity to innovate the passenger experience even further through Fast Travel.”

Fast Travel is a suite of self-service options to add further efficiency to the travel experience from check-in to baggage retrieval that has been implemented in airline-airport partnerships including SAS and Copenhagen Airport, the first to implement all five Fast Travel projects.

Tyler urged airlines and airports to work more closely on baggage delivery accuracy to support airlines as they unbundle their product, including baggage charges. IATA’s Baggage Improvement Program helped Air New Zealand and Auckland International Airport reduce baggage mishandling by 75 percent.