L IA N C E IO 2 SP DIT UE E S IS
I N T E R N AT I O N A L DA I LY 15 NOVEMBER 2017
AVSEC WORLD
14 - 16 November 2017 | Abu Dhabi, UAE
Cooperation is crucial to success
T
he urgent need for states and aviation authorities to share information about risks, passengers and wideranging security issues was a key theme of opening day presentations on Tuesday at the 26th AVSEC World Conference in Abu Dhabi. Governments also must be ready to shoulder greater responsibility for resourcing evolving requirements such as assessing passenger risks over the long term, speakers warned. In his keynote speech, Alexandre de Juniac, IATA Director General and CEO, called on government security organizations to overcome to their reluctance to share information when they are aware of a risk to human life. “Our safety performance shows what can be achieved when governments cooperate among themselves and with the industry,” de Juniac said. “Information sharing is not in the DNA of most government security organizations. But this reluctance must be overcome. And to be clear, we are not asking governments to divulge sensitive intelligence to industry. But if they know of a risk to human life—to innocent human life—they need to tell the people who can do something about it. Otherwise, what’s the use of having the information?” De Juniac went on to say, “We are eager to work with governments to establish a
government-industry partnership platform for the exchange of threat/risk information, during times of crisis when there are urgent threats and in the regular exercise of contingency planning.” He added: “Airlines have operational know-how. Governments have the financial and intelligence resources. We must simply work together.” Offering a keynote welcome and opening remarks was H.E. Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansoori, Minister of Economy and Chairman of the UAE’s General Civil
Aviation Authority, who noted that the UAE Vision 2021 has included air transportation safety, security and infrastructure as a major key performance indicator with “specific and clear targets aiming at strengthening and sustaining the sector.” He said, “As we all know, aviation security is a topic of critical importance, and partnership is a key in facing a wide range of security challenges by pooling resources, finding solutions and building capacity.” Host airline for the three-day conference is Etihad Airways.
K E E P U P T O DAT E W I T H A L L T H I N G S A I R L I N E S R E L AT E D AT A I R L I N E S . I A T A . O R G
W W W. I A T A . O R G / E V E N T S