ACI Asia Pacific Regional Director Reviews Challenges Airports

Regional Director of Airports Council International (ACI) Asia Pacific, Mrs. Maggie Kwok attended the Beijing Global Friend Airports CEO Forum, hosted by Capital Airports Holding Company (CAH) and Beijing Capital International Airport Co. Ltd. (BCIA), held last week in Beijing.

At her speech to over 200 airport leaders, Mrs. Kwok reviewed the opportunities and challenges facing the world airport industry today. She stated that ACI, being the voice of Airports, aims to foster cooperation between partners in the industry and aviation is a global business where cooperation between different players is essential in enhancing the interests of its customers.

ACI’s traffic record shows that global passenger traffic has grown by 45% in the last 10 years (from 3.48 billion in 2000 to 5.04 billion in 2010) and the trend is continuing. ACI has forecast global passenger traffic to double to over 10 billion passengers by 2029. The high traffic growth implies need for expansion and upgrade of airport infrastructure which can impose huge financial burden to airports. Profitability is therefore crucial and airports need to explore ways to increase non-aeronautical revenues.

Mrs. Kwok said that challenges come in many other formats, they can be economic or security crises, natural disasters or operational issues.

“ACI helps airports worldwide to manage these challenges, firstly, by advocating for interests of airports and secondly, by promoting airport excellence. In terms of advocating airports’ interests, ACI aligns itself with the work and objectives of ICAO and strives to strengthen ACI’s advocacy role in the aviation industry. ACI’s work with ICAO and IATA is fundamental to ensuring constant improvements worldwide and keeping all nations and regions aligned on the industry’s best practices,” Mrs Kwok said.

In closing, she thanked CAH and BCIA for setting a good example in contributing to the sustainable development of the aviation industry and promotion of airport cooperation by organizing this forum. “In our industry, standing still is simply not an option. Airports should go hand in hand to ride through the challenges.” concluded Mrs. Kwok.

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