Airports Council International (ACI) signs joint declaration on Air Navigation Service Infrastructure

Today, during the ALTA Airline Leaders Forum 2012, the largest event of its nature in the Latin American and Caribbean commercial aviation industry, Angela Gittens, Director General of ACI World signed the ACI, ACI-LAC, ALTA, CANSO, IATA Joint Declaration on Airport and Air Navigation Service Infrastructure in the Latin American and Caribbean Region.

According to Angela Gittens, “Airport traffic in Latin America is growing very fast and this is placing tremendous pressure on infrastructure capacity in the region. According to ACI’s 2011 World Airport Traffic Report, growth in Latin American airport traffic was 8.5%, which is far above the world average of 5.3%. With airports playing an important role in the economic and social vitality of nations, governments should facilitate and encourage the growth of aviation and the airport infrastructure necessary to accommodate passenger traffic. In addition, government regulation should be sufficiently flexible to enable an industry as dynamic as aviation to grow and adapt in response to new technologies and traffic fluctuations, especially in light of passenger traffic forecasted to double and hit the 10 billion passenger mark by the year 2030.”

The joint declaration urges Latin American and Caribbean Governments to acknowledge the vital role of aviation in social and economic development; provide a fertile environment for the development of air transport infrastructure to accommodate growth based on regional needs and operational requirements; provide economic oversight; reinvest aviation revenues into air transport infrastructure; and refrain from taxing national or multinational aviation when taxes are not reinvested in aviation development.

More specifically, the declaration urges Latin American and Caribbean Governments to:

• Facilitate the timely development of air transport infrastructure in order to accommodate the growth of the air transport industry and ensure the social and economic benefits that aviation brings;
• Provide effective economic regulatory oversight to attract the much needed investment in air transport infrastructure whilst maintaining the competitive advantages of air transport;
• Encourage the development of sustainable air transport infrastructure commensurate with the actual needs of the regions served and based on operational requirements of the airlines that use the infrastructure;
• Apply the revenue generated from aviation for the development of air transport infrastructure, while maintaining compliance with ICAO polices;
• Refrain from imposing taxes on aviation on a national or multi-national level which are not reinvested into aviation development.

The declaration was signed by the leaders of ACI World, ACI Latin America-Caribbean, ALTA (Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association), CANSO (Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation) and IATA (International Air Transport Association).