Air traffic control in the Gulf a big issue: IATA chief

Air traffic congestion is a big hurdle for the Gulf airlines, warns Alexandre de Juniac, the new Director-General and chief executive of IATA. “In the Gulf, the infrastructure problem for air traffic control is becoming a very big issue – causing delays, causing disruptions. And it’s not the matter of capacity. The Gulf states should have kind of a unified system, or cooperative, collaborative system to run their skies,” he told Gulf News in an interview on Thursday in Geneva. Asked if there was any progress made by the region in that direction and if IATA had made any headway in tackling the situation, de Juniac said: “Yes. They have launched two programmes for that, and yes, I think they will do the job. Each of the [Gulf] countries have a national aviation strategy so for them it’s a big concern, it’s a big priority.” Asked what the Middle East carriers needed to do to improve their profitability, de Juniac said: “What we say to the governments over there is do not increase too much taxes and charges. Otherwise you will put an end to that fantastic success story.” IATA spends a lot of time “fighting taxes and charges”, he added, and sometimes enlightened government policies are the result. “And combined increases in passenger fees in the UAE and Qatar are risking the Gulf’s amazing success story with $700 million in new costs,” de Juniac said.<br/>