Facilitating Air Transportation for Economic Growth

The region of Asia Pacific witnessed (at least three) tragic aviation incidents in 2014 - some of which has not come to closure. Ironically, contrary to what our memory would have guessed, statistics from International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Aviaton Safety Network suggest that 2014 may well be the safest year in modern aviation history in terms of numbers of fatal accidents. The year 2014 was marked with 8 fatal accidents compared to 2005 with 24. However in terms of number of victims, the 2014 may well exceed the 2005 record of 1,014 lives were lost. The 2015 also has a shocking start with the most recent distressful accident in Europe.

The terrible aviation safety record of 2005 seemed not to deter the growth of the industry. According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), in 2006, the growth of international passenger grew at 5,2% and accelerating to 7,7% in 2007. The financial crisis finally brought down the growth to 1,4% in 2008, and even shrunk it to -4,2% in 2009. This was followed by a significant rebound to positive growth of 6,5% in 2010, and remain growing afterwards.

Not only has the growth of international passenger been positive, the size of global air passenger is definitely not dismissible. with 3,2 billion global air passengers (international and domestic), air transport carried almost half of the world population in 2013. This is a noticeable growth from 2,9 billion passengers in 2012 or 4,6% increase - while the global GDP only grew at 3,1% according to the IMF.

According to the IATA, aviation’s total global economic impact is $2.4 trillion, equivalent to 3.4% of world gross domestic product (GDP). The industry
supports more than 58 million jobs worldwide. This is not to mention that it has spillover impacts on other industries such as tourism.

On one hand, this could mean that the need for air travel will continue despite accidents, after all air transport is still considered the safest mode of transportation - by some measure. On the other, this calls for a better management of air transportation from perspectives of safety, security, and convenience for passengers. Without proper and comprehensive management, the world or a country may stand to lose thrust of global economic growth.

Apparently since the 9/11 tragedy, increasing emphasis has been put on the security aspect when passenger management is concerned. Security measures have come at the cost of convenience: stricter security check on passengers and the baggage, stringent transit regulations, and many more. Before 9/11, the average checkpoint processed about 350 passenger per hour, afterwards down below 150. While it has been an accepted norm of the day, certainly the pressure that comes with the increasing number of global passengers make it difficult to go business as usual. This is especially important for the Asia Pacific region. According to the Airport Council International, out of 20 busiest airport in the world, 16 are located in the region.

This is where work on travel facilitation will play significant role to provide a conducive environment for the growing industry employing on technological and institutional resources. While physical security check may be able to detect certain threats, it is far from efficient and convenient given the overwhelming numbers of legitimate travelers as compared to the high-risk ones.

Technology for passenger identification such as the Advance Passenger Information (API) and Passenger Name Record (PNR) will enable border officials to focus on passengers of interest well in advance before the trip is made. Thus, legitimate travelers could go through more relaxed level of security checks/processing. API basically a protocol to transmit the biographical information as contained in travel documents. As such it does not contain sensitive information and will be useful to detect passengers whose records have already been registered by the destination authorities. PNR on the other hand, is much richer information collected during reservation and may contain sensitive information such as address, complete itinerary, methods of payment, banking, credit card details. It can provide a profiling of passengers looking at various data which can help them irregularities in the reservation.

The benefit of this focused and data-driven security check will not only be enjoyed by the travelers, but also the authorities and industry. It will lower the pressure on government officials to check every single passengers with the same zealous security concern. The industry especially the airlines will benefit from preventing inadmissible travelers and high-risk passengers to board their planes. It is a win-win solution to everybody. Of course this comes in a handsome price, but given the potentials - it may be well worth spending as a long term investment.

All this technology will only work to its optimum with the correct institutional setting especially: coordination among government agencies, port authorities, and relevant industries. Especially in countries that have different agencies for customs, immigration, and quarantines - a working mechanism for coordination and information sharing needs to be in place. At the same time, the government agencies need to work closely with the relevant industries especially airlines to find a working relationship that is both business-friendly (for the airlines to grow), as well as business-responsible. It is a balance that is relatively difficult to arrive at, and very dynamic that requires some tuning from time to time.

To add to it, this complex relationship will need also to take place internationally. The government and business need to work together across the border to make this arrangement work. Especially in the implementation of PNR, the European Union is particularly very stringent on the exchange of privacy data, and requires a legally-binding framework to regulate any transmission of such data.

The good news is more and more international cooperation is being implemented to address this. ICAO and IATA - representing the government and business grouping stakeholders - are cooperating to help their respective clients to help implement the facilitation of air transport. Their works include awareness as well as regulation/standard setting. At the regional level, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) has been promoting its Travel Facilitation Initiative (TFI). TFI includes key components such as: API/PNR, APEC Business Travel Card, Trusted Traveler Program, and Airport Partnership Program. These and other international works will provide countries/jurisdictions and business with tools to make well-informed decisions. After all, we all share the same interests in facilitating air transportation to put the economic growth at full throttle.