Latin American aviation providing sustainable growth

Rio de Janeiro – Leaders in the Latin America aviation industry are meeting in Brazil for a workshop on sustainable aviation. The event brings together experts from airports, airlines, air traffic control providers, aircraft and engine manufacturers and governments. It will explore the challenges that arise from growth in aviation across Latin America and how the industry and governments can work together to solve these challenges.

Paul Steele, Executive Director of the aviation industry coalition Air Transport Action Group (ATAG), says: “All forecasts indicate that passenger numbers in Latin America are growing faster than the world average. By 2030, we could see 600 million passengers in the region. The question is: how can we enjoy the benefits of this growth, whilst also ensuring we meet the challenges of infrastructure, environmental sustainability and social benefits?”.

Airlines based in Latin America carry over 154 million passengers each year. Aviation is responsible for 2.4 million jobs that are nearly three times more productive than average jobs in the economy.

Steele says, “It is clear that air transport plays a vital role in the economic development of all countries, but especially in fast-growing emerging economies such as Brazil. Aviation provides connections within the country and between Brazil and its trading partners regionally and worldwide. It is very important that the air transport sector is given the support by governments to grow responsibly so that its benefits can be made available to more people.

“It is estimated that nearly R$30 billion per annum is contributed to the Brazilian economy through airline and airport activities. This figure doesn’t even include manufacturing facilities such as the significant Embraer operations which provide very important value to the Brazilian economy, or tourism. These people have highly-skilled jobs and earn higher than average salaries, which further contributes to the communities within which they live and work.

“Latin America’s aviation sector is growing faster than the global average and that potential for growth has not yet been exhausted. Brazil, for example, has significant untapped potential. The average US citizen travels by air 1.8 times each year, while the average Brazilian takes 0.3 flights. As the Brazilian economy strengthens, with a population of over 190 million, there is great scope for both the aviation industry to grow and for the economic knock-on effects in areas like trade and tourism to also benefit.”

The workshop, organised by ATAG, comes a year ahead of the United Nations Sustainable Development Conference (also known as Rio+20), to be hosted by the Brazilian Government in Rio de Janeiro and which will focus on developing a green economy in the context of sustainable development.

Paul Steele adds, “Aviation has a great story to tell in this regard. Our services provide jobs and support trade and tourism all over the world. We are also the only global industry to have a united set of targets for reducing our impact on climate change. We will cap our net carbon emissions from 2020 and reduce them by 50% by 2050, compared to 2005. No other industry has put forward such ambitious targets.”