THE International Air Transport Association (IATA) is urging Asia to play a leadership role in driving the aviation industry towards carbon neutral growth leading to a zero-emission industry.
"We have seen some improvement in delays in the Golden Triangle of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong/Guangzhou. But the time required to sort out the Pearl River Delta's complicated system is frustratingly slow," said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA's director general and CEO at the Greener Skies for Asia 2008 conference in Hong Kong
Mr Bisignani said that implementation must speed up, noting particularly the air traffic management system for the five airports in the Pearl River Delta region of China.
"By 2010 Asia will be the largest single market for aviation. With size comes leadership responsibility. And that includes environment issues," he said.
"My focus is on reducing carbon emissions. And reducing fuel burn is at the heart of the issue. Every litre of fuel we can save reduces CO2 emissions by over three kilogrammes. By shortening routes, improving air traffic management and spreading best practice in fuel conservation IATA helped save up to 25 million tonnes of CO2 in the last two years," he said.
Mr Bisignani also gave examples for innovation from around the region, including the introduction of new air traffic procedures in Japan, more efficient routings in China and the ASPIRE air traffic management joint initiative of AirServices Australia, the United States FAA and Airways New Zealand.
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