AACO: AGM welcomes new members and calls on EU to get in line with world opinion

They are cargo operator Maximus Air and Saudi value carrier Nasair. Both were adopted at the AGM as active members.

Petra Airlines and Tassili Airlines were adopted as associate members

The members – which consists of most of the carriers across the Middle East and North Africa – also called upon the European Union to allow ICAO enough time to achieve a global understanding on how to deal with the environmental footprint of civil aviation.

AACO reaffirmed that “the persistence of the EU in its unilateral initiative to include aviation into its ETS will result in disputes with the rest of the world which, as a whole, opposes that the EU grants itself the right to impose its laws beyond its borders,” a statement issued by the Association tonight, said.

“Such EU policy would lead to conflicts and trade wars which will not help the environment, the airlines nor will it help the customer, but will adversely affect the global economic activity,” the statement continued.

 The AGM did however welcome the EC Communication signalling its intention to expand the scope of the EU External Aviation Policy to include open skies negotiations with GCC states, especially following the latest cooperation between Arab airlines and some European carriers.

The AGM called upon relevant Arab aviation stakeholders to reach a framework of principles to be used in all existing or planned bilateral agreements between Arab countries on one hand and with the European Union on the other, and that those same principles to be applied between all willing signatories.

The AACO AGM also unveiled the statistics for the Arab carriers over the past year.

Among the highlights were:

-            The Arab air transport market grew by 5.7% in 2011 compared to 2010, reaching 133 million passengers.

-            Passenger numbers using Arab airports in 2011 increased by 0.3% to reach more than 225 million passengers.

-            Cargo movement at Arab airports increased by 1.3% in 2011 reaching 5.7 million tons of cargo.

-            AACO members’ operating revenues increased by 14.3% in 2011 to record USD 23 billion for 12 member airlines.

-            AACO members carried 125 million passengers in 2011 (an increase of 4.6%) and 3.9 million tons of cargo (an increase of 8.4%).

-            AACO members served 356 destinations in 107 countries with 2,873 average daily flights, offering 541,899 daily seats on 908 aircraft.

Speaking about the results and the future for air transport in the region, secretary general Abdulwahab Teffaha (pictured right)  focused on tools to ensure sustainability of success of the Arab air transport sector and its airlines. These included removing restrictions on market access and on ownership and control, at least on the regional level, while avoiding capacity dumping and subsidies, freedom of movement of people and goods between Arab countries and allowing Arab investments to be treated as national ones. These, he said, are all tools that would speed up the growth of the Arab air transport sector and ensure the sustainability of its success.

Next year's meeting is to be held in Doha.