TokyoTomo Travel Guide

19 April, 2009 (Paris) — The International Air Transport Association (IATA) sharply criticized European governments for their lack of leadership in handling airspace restrictions in light of the Icelandic volcano eruption and urged a re-think of the decision-making process.

“We are far enough into this crisis to express our dissatisfaction on how governments have managed it—with no risk assessment, no consultation, no coordination, and no leadership. This crisis is costing airlines at least $200 million a day in lost revenues and the European economy is suffering billions of dollars in lost business. In the face of such dire economic consequences, it is incredible that Europe’s transport ministers have taken five days to organize a teleconference,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

“Governments must place greater urgency and focus on how and when we can safely re-open Europe’s skies. This means decisions based on risk-management, facts and utilizing operational procedures that maintain safety,” said Bisignani.

IATA criticized Europe’s unique methodology of closing airspace based on theoretical modeling of the ash cloud. “This means that governments have not taken their responsibility to make clear decisions based on facts. Instead, it has been the air navigation service providers who announced that they would not provide service. And these decisions have been taken without adequately consulting the airlines. This is not an acceptable system particularly when the consequences for safety and the economy are so large,” said Bisignani.

“Safety is our top priority. Airlines will not fly if it is not safe. I have consulted our member airlines that normally operate in the affected airspace. They report missed opportunities to fly safely. The European system results in blanket closures of airspace. I challenge governments to agree on ways to flexibly re-open airspace. Risk assessments should be able to help us re-open certain corridors, if not entire airspaces,” said Bisignani.

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Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO, had a meeting with Seiji Maehara, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism on April 12, whereby he urged Minister Maehara to address cost issues including lowering the landing charges for the international flights serving Haneda Airport. At a press briefing, held prior to the meeting with Maehara, Bisignani stressed that amid China’s fastest growing aviation market in the Asian Pacific region, the Japanese aviation market must grow to be competitive, with an eye towards the expanding Chinese international market. In order to be able to compete with Seoul’s Incheon, Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong, it is imperative for Japan to reduce the landing fees at the metropolitan airports, maintained Bisignani.

Commenting also on three airports in the Kansai region, Bisignani told the press briefing that the five runways of Kansai, Itami and Kobe strive to serve 36 million passengers per year, whereas Singapore’s Changi Airport serves 37 million passengers successfully with its two runways, and with much cheaper costs, adding that airlines can no longer afford to pay for airport infrastructure that was developed for political purposes.

Bisignani also mentioned that Japan has seen some historical news in its aviation history including the restructuring of Japan Airlines, the open skies bilateral with the US and the increased take-off and landing slots at Tokyo metropolitan airports. The slot expansion at Narita and Haneda, in particular, is considered to be the largest change ever made in the Japanese aviation history during the last 30 years, observed Bisignani. While he praised the open skies agreement concluded under the Hatoyama administration, he urged that the Japanese government should lift restrictions imposed on the foreign capital investment on Japanese airlines.

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.

Four Japanese travel agencies – Nippon Travel Agency (NTA), TOPTOUR, NOE and F-ness – agreed on April 16 to integrate their respective ticketing functions for international flights and purchasing functions for published international air fares. By summer 2010, the four travel agencies plan to jointly establish a new company with its task force slated to be ready for a start within this month. Amid the severe market environment of the travel industry still to continue in Japan with the transition to zero agency ticket sales commission and the revision of the financial guarantee system made by International Air Transport Association (IATA), these four travel agencies strive to reduce the overlapping costs by consolidating the respective ticketing functions and to enhance the respective purchasing power by expanding the business transactions.

The aggregate ticket sales of the published international air fares by these four travel agencies amount to roughly 120 billion yen for the fiscal year 2008. The new joint company, right after it is established, will basically issue international air tickets only in favor of its four investing travel agencies. Should other travel agencies support the objective of the new joint company, however, it may possibly accept the ticketing orders from third parties as well subject to the consent of the four investing travel agencies.

The new joint company is supposed to apply for the Third Category travel license. Undecided yet at present are the company name, the investment ratio among the four companies and the managerial and organizational structures, but these will be in due course finalized by the task force. Also, the number of employees at the new company is yet to be decided, but, meanwhile, a number of ticketing staff members will most probably be recruited from among the four investing travel agencies to ensure smooth implementation of ticketing. The total number of ticketing staff presently working at the four companies is some 60. In addition, staff members dedicated to purchasing operation are also to be posted at the new company. The new joint company, once established, may consider hiring new employees or getting necessary staff transferred from among the four travel agencies.

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