EVERY NEW ROUTE, EVERY WEEK ,
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER , VISIT WWW. ANNA . AERO
10
Routes
DURBAN
Daily
Issue 02
Monday
21 September 2015
Produced by:
The first panel session addressing the state
of the industry, moderated by John Strickland
of JLS Consulting featured: Angela Gittens,
Director General, ACI World; Hemant Mistry,
Director, Airports and Fuel, IATA; Tewolde
GebreMariam, CEO, Ethiopian Airlines; David
Scowsill, President & CEO, World Travel &
Tourism Council; Fabrice Valentin, Head of
Market Research & Forecasts, Airbus; and
Athar Husain Khan, Chief Executive Officer,
AEA. Topics discussed included aviation as
an eco-system where all partners had to
work together for the benefit of everyone,
the continued growth of aviation at above
the rate of GDP growth, the importance
of liberalization, improvements in airline
efficiencies, the importance of governments
understanding the role aviation plays in
a country’s economy, and why Ethiopian
Airline is still paying the same for its fuel
now as it did before crude oil prices fell from
$100 per barrel to $50.
Fernando Estrada, Chief Strategy Officer,
Vueling; Zhihang Chi, VP & GM North
America, Air China; and Alex Heiter, Executive
Director Network and Fleet Planning,
Boeing were joined during the second
panel discussion (on Airline Challenges &
Growth Concerns) by Evan Berg, Manager of
International Planning, Southwest Airlines;
Richard Bodin, Chief Commercial Officer,
FastJet and Sylvain Bosc, CCO, South African
Airways (SAA). Topics discussed included the
importance of maintain a great company
culture (Southwest), accident safety rates
(Boeing), the recent rapid growth in China-
US flights (Air China), the need for improved
infrastructure in Africa (FastJet) and issues of
fuel and food quality across Africa (SAA).
Richard Evans, Senior Consultant
at Flightglobal Ascend gave a
20-minute presentation on “Airline
Challenges & Growth Concerns”.
His figures revealed that while the
world’s busiest airport (Atlanta)
has grown by only 15% in the last
decade, the world’s tenth busiest
airport has grown by almost 50%.
Among the 20 fastest-growing
airports in the world (since 2004)
10 are in China, three in Turkey and
two in India, while among the 20
fastest-growing airlines just two are
in Europe and none are in North
America. Evans then looked at the
fastest-growing routes and explored
the possible implications for certain
airlines of the improved range being
offered by the next generation of
narrow-body aircraft such as the
737MAX and the A320/A321 NEO.
