Source: ALTA Colombia’s geographical location allows it to position itself as an important air transport hub for cargo and passengers. With 16 international airports, 26 airlines connecting the country directly with 28 nations, about 300,000 monthly passengers and about 70,000 tons of cargo per month, on average, Colombia is positioned as the third largest commercial aviation market in Latin America and the Caribbean and El Dorado International Airport as the region’s main cargo hub. The Colombian government has implemented timely measures that have enabled the safe resumption of aviation, especially domestic transport in a country that needs aviation for its mountainous geography for the safe and efficient transportation of the population.  This consolidated Colombia as the second fastest recovery market [...]

Source: ALTA At the first panel of the ALTA CCMA & MRO 2022 Conference, we had a very productive discussion on the future of aviation in Latin America and the Caribbean with the participation of Hernán Pasman, Head of Operations of the Latam Airlines Group, José Antonio Montero, Chief Financial Officer of COPA and Julio Gamero, CEO of TAG Airlines. The panel was moderated by Alex de Gunten, Heico’s Senior Vice President and Chairman of ALTA’s Steering Committee. Among the topics covered are the recovery of the industry after the pandemic, the next moments of aviation in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean and recent market movements, such as the consolidation of airlines in large groups. At the [...]

Source: ALTA The Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA) is pleased to organize a new face-to-face edition of the ALTA CCMA & MRO Conference, a meeting focused on the main pillars for the region’s air sector: innovation, technology and efficiency. From May 15 to 17, about 120 representatives of airlines and 450 representatives of maintenance companies and aviation supply suppliers will meet in the host city, Cartagena de Indias, located on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. At the ALTA CCMA & MRO Conference, networking and collaborative work are the protagonists. With six decades of history, the conference attracts executives from the technical areas, who participate in this space to share knowledge, innovations and explore business opportunities in a [...]

Source: ICAO ICAO has issued new requests for information (RFIs) from public- and private-sector innovators for its upcoming DRONE ENABLE event, designed to advance next generation global standards and solutions for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), UAS traffic management (UTM), and advanced air mobility (AAM). The deadline for the latest round of RFI submissions is 15 July, with 2022 submitters being asked to contribute either their latest experiences and best practices based on recent UTM deployments, or new insights and proposals relating to UTM data requirements. More detailed instructions for prospective RFI contributors are available here. “Governments and innovators expect DRONE ENABLE to deliver global solutions for them, and the focus now is on how the next evolution of aircraft, both manned [...]

Source: EUROCONTROL EUROCONTROL has today published its latest Think Paper, the 16th in a series of thought-provoking studies, providing an in-depth assessment of what cutting emissions by 55% in 2030 compared to 1990 levels would mean for European aviation in practical terms. EUROCONTROL’s analysis is aligned with the planned policy proposals associated with the EU Green Deal as well as other initiatives from across Europe. The estimates are based on the three traffic scenarios – High, Base and Low – published in the recent EUROCONTROL Aviation Outlook 2050. The paper demonstrates that a 55% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030 is achievable in all three scenarios, but its success is heavily reliant on Market Based Measures, mainly via the EU Emissions Trading [...]

Source: ICAO On 9 May 2022, ICAO Council President Salvatore Sciacchitano delivered the opening keynote address at the Future of Aviation Forum, which was hosted in Riyadh by the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Held at a pivotal moment for the global aviation sector, Saudi Arabia designed the Future Aviation Forum to bring leaders from across the aviation ecosystem to work together on resilience and modernization, and act as a global platform to collectively set an agenda for the future of the sector. The President underscored in his introduction how the well-attended and high-level in-person event provided a "very positive sign that more optimistic and profitable horizons now lie ahead for global aviation." He proceeded to identify several [...]

Source: ALTA Latin America and the Caribbean lags behind on digital technologies in transportation, which presents a major opportunity to boost a key economic sector, an Inter-American Development Bank study finds, in alliance with the World Economic Forum, American Association of Port Authorities – AAPA, Latin American & Caribbean Air Transport Association – ALTA, Latin America Civil Aviation Commission – CLAC, World Road Transport Organisation – IRU, Intel and Microsoft. Despite some governments’ efforts to enhance policies on digitally transforming transportation, 40 percent of transportation authorities and 27 percent of private-sector actors in the region have yet to design a digital transformation strategy. This gap is a key conclusion of the study Driving Forward the Digital Transformation of Transportation in Latin [...]

Source: IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA) welcomed new guidance from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) removing its recommendation that masks should be required in-flight. EASA’s updated Aviation Health Safety Protocol, published 11 May, calls for the mandatory mask rule to be relaxed where rules have been relaxed for other transport modes. This important shift reflects the high levels of vaccination, natural immunity levels, and the removal of domestic restrictions in many European nations. The updated guidance also acknowledges the need to move from an emergency situation to a more sustainable mode of managing COVID-19. “We welcome EASA’s recommendation to relax the mask mandate, which is another important step along the road back to normality for air passengers. [...]

Source: IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that the 2022 Cabin Ops Safety Conference (COSC) will take place as an in-person event in Lisbon, Portugal, 14-16 June with TAP Air Portugal as the Host Airline. In the face of numerous operational challenges, the airline industry improved its safety performance in several key areas in 2021, compared both to 2020 and to the average of the five years 2017-2021, including reductions in the accident rate and the number of passenger fatalities. These strong results were achieved as the industry ramped-up operations from the low point of April 2020, while addressing numerous issues, including crew shortages and a sharp rise in unruly passenger events. “Airlines and their employees have done a superb [...]