Willie Walsh discussed the Russia-Ukraine war and its impact on the airline industry during the press conference at the IATA Congress in Delhi.
He noted that geopolitics has influenced the industry throughout his 46 years of experience, with more challenges currently evident.
Walsh expressed that the airline sector has developed skills to manage geopolitical changes effectively.
The industry has shown resilience by quickly adapting to changes in airspace accessibility.
He stated a preference for open airspace but acknowledged the necessity of finding alternative routings when faced with restrictions.
Willie Walsh shared: “Geopolitics has always been a factor in our industry. There’s probably more of it at play today than I’ve seen, but in 46 years in this industry, geopolitics have played a part in every single one of those years. I could argue that it’s something that airlines have become skilled at dealing with. We’re a very resilient industry and we’re very quick to be able to adapt to any change in the geopolitical environment. We would prefer that these issues didn’t impact on us. Where air space is closed, we quickly adapt to find alternative routings for the industry to enable it to continue serving the markets and the consumers that we are.”
Pieter Elbers shared: Perhaps it’s good to recognize some of the work IATA is doing in this respect. When these things are happening, IATA is stepping forward in terms of addressing the voice of the industry, which is important because it’s not affecting just a single airline or a single country, it’s usually affecting multiple airlines or multiple geographies, really, which are being involved by that. Specifically here, you are very much aware of where we are today and some of the recent things. I think there’s incredible resilience in the industry. Geopolitics is influencing, of course, routes and travels, but we see that either it’s being resolved quick and then traffic returns very, very quick, or it’s not being reserved quick and then alternatives are being found for either traffic flows or routings or things like that. I would say the resilience of the industry to build on what William just shared is, in fact, what is the most relevant part here because it will be integrated in business fairly quickly and airlines adjust themselves accordingly
