The AGM Along With World Air Transport Summit To Be Held In Cape Town

For the first time the annual general meeting (AGM) of the international Air transport association (IATA) is going to be held in Cape Town, South Africa. This is the 69^th AGM of IATA and is going to be held for 2^nd to 4^th june. It will also be the occasion for the world air transport summit. During this time the issues related to the safety, environment, distribution and financial sustainability would be the prime focus. This is the third AGM in the held in the continent of Africa. Before this two other meetings were held here- the first back in 1946 in Cairo, Egypt and the second one in Nairobi, Kenya in the year 1991.   

The opening note of the AGM is going to be delivered by Kgalema Motlan, Deputy President, South Africa followed by Malusi Gigaba, Minister for Public Enterprises, South Africa.

On the first day i.e. on the 2^nd june two panel discussions are going to be featured. The one is the “CEO insight panel discussions” and the other is the other will be the
“unlocking the Africa’s potential session”.  The CEO panel discussions will be participated by speakers on the issue as Thomas Horton, Chairman and CEO, American Airlines; Richard Anderson, CEO, Delta Air Lines; Tim Clark, President, Emirates; Tewolde GebreMariam, CEO, Ethiopian Airlines; Choon Phong Goh, CEO, Singapore Airlines; and Jeffrey Katz, CEO, Wize Commerce. Richard Quest the CNN correspondent will moderate the session. Whereas Kim Norgaard, Bureau Chief, CNN Africa would be the moderator of the other session panelled by Elijah Chingosho, Secretary General and CEO, Association of African Airlines; Bernard Gustin, CEO, Brussels Airlines; James Hogan, CEO, Etihad Airways; Titus Naikuni, CEO, Kenya Airways; and Francesco Violante, CEO, SITA.

On the last day, the discussions will be focussed on the industry issues and the concentrating on the ideas relating to the cost of infrastructure, ancillary revenues, achieving carbon-neutral growth from 2020, and crisis communications and social media.

On the upcoming event the director general and CEO, IATA Tony Tyler quoted, "We will be looking at providing industry solutions to the expanding patchwork of overlapping, and often conflicting, passenger rights regulations among states. Rather than trying to dictate the business practices of a deregulated industry, governments should be removing obstacles to getting customers where they need to go on time by investing in airport and airways infrastructure."

He added, "Our presence in Cape Town should send a clear signal to governments of our commitment to working with airlines, governments and stakeholders to help aviation reach its potential to drive progress in Africa." He also made a special note of the fact that 1^st of January 2014 was going to be celebrated as the 100^th anniversary of the first commercial airline flight and hence it was a time for a new era in commercial airlines to begin her said, “it is altogether appropriate that we look forward to the next century of commercial air transport in a region which is so rich in promise.”