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Administration Budget Proposals: The Administration has
put forth budget proposals that would add around $5.5
billion in additional fees and charges to the aviation
industry. “Implementing these would be a mistake.
Connectivity is the lifeblood of modern business.
Burdening aviation with even more cost is exactly the
wrong approach to getting the economy airborne,” said
Tyler.
Along with continuing cooperation to improve aviation
safety and to replace the one-size-fits all approach to
security with a risk-based system, Tyler encouraged US
aviation policymakers to focus on infrastructure
investment to support operational efficiency, commercial
regulation appropriate to a de-regulated industry and
environmental policies aligned to the industry’s
ambitious global targets.
Infrastructure and facilitation investments must be
aligned to increasing demand for connectivity:
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“Despite the billions contributed by aviation in fees
and charges, lack of adequate sustained funding is a
perennial problem for aviation. It has slowed
implementation of the New York airspace redesign and the
Federal Aviation Administration’s NextGen air traffic
modernization to the detriment of travelers and
shippers,” said Tyler.
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Long delays at immigration and customs facilities are
another problem. “Demand for international connectivity
and tourism is rising but US Customs and Border
Protection (CBP) staffing levels have not kept pace.
Wait times to clear customs and immigration at major
airports regularly exceed CBP’s own aspirational target
of 60 minutes. At New York John F. Kennedy Airport’s
Terminal 1, for example, the average wait time is
111-minutes during peak periods. And on numerous
occasion travelers wait three hours and longer. And this
is before any sequestration-related impacts. Instead of
holding aviation captive to the budget process, the
government needs to fix the problems it has created,”
said Tyler.
Tyler criticized short-sighted and overly-intrusive
regulations. “The airline industry was
deregulated in 1978 but often it seems this was in name
only. The continued micro-managing of competition has
the real potential to harm consumers,” said Tyler. This
has specific reference as the industry modernizes its
distribution capabilities:
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The US Department of Transportation (DOT) is preparing
to propose a rule requiring airlines to display through
the global distribution system (GDS) channel some or all
of their ancillary products if they sell any tickets
through that channel. “This would substitute federal
regulation for airline commercial decisions. It’s an
unreasonable intrusion into the marketplace. Airlines
already list all of their ancillary products and
services on their XML-enabled websites. However, the GDS
channel used by travel agents is limited in the amount
and manner in which content can be displayed because of
legacy pre-Internet messaging standards,” said Tyler.
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IATA urged governments and stakeholders to support the
industry’s effort to develop a New Distribution
Capability (NDC). “NDC—based on XML standards--will
enable airlines to offer customers the same travel
options, regardless of whether they go directly to the
airline website, or use a travel agent powered by a GDS.
The result will be better-informed customers as airlines
and third parties are able to display more information
on flight options and services than are currently
available through the indirect channel. NDC is a
flexible private-sector solution to address an issue
arising from commercial developments in the airline
industry. It is far superior to an inflexible regulatory
mandate that is not in the spirit of deregulation nor
aligned with the workings of the free market.”
Tyler urged the US to continue to align aviation-related
environment policies with a global effort led by the
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and
supporting the industry’s three sequential goals of (1)
improving fuel efficiency by 1.5% annually to 2020, (2)
capping net emissions with carbon-neutral growth from
2020 and (3) cutting net emissions in half by 2050
compared to 2005 levels.
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Tyler thanked Congress and the Obama Administration for
their support of the ICAO process as the way forward on
positive economic measures, also known as market-based
measures, rather than regional solutions such as the
EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). “With the clock
stopped on the ETS, governments can now focus their
attention on finding a global way forward through the
ICAO processes. I do not expect it will be easy;
nonetheless, this is an issue that belongs at ICAO,”
said Tyler.
- Tyler also thanked the Obama Administration for
recently renewing the Farm to Fly
industry-government partnership that aims to support
annual production of one billion gallons of
sustainable biofuels by 2018. “Farm to Fly is an
example of the type of cooperation that will help us
to unlock the potential for biofuels, which is a
critical component to meeting the industry’s
commitment to reduce aviation’s net emissions 50% by
2050 compared to 2005,” Tyler said.
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