Tag Archives: Conrad Clifford

Conrad Clifford, IATA’s Deputy Director General and Regional Vice President for Asia Pacific, believes that vaccination and testing have a role to play in the recovery of international travel, and it is not sustainable to maintain a ‘zero caseload’ approach. He says, “It is not an option to wait for vaccines to be widely available before reopening borders. The global vaccine roll-out is likely to take time.”

IATA is working with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to put in place scalable, affordable and fast testing systems, revealed Conrad Clifford, Regional Vice-President Asia Pacific, IATA. Alexandre De Juniac, Director General & CEO, IATA had also said last week, “We have a solution to open borders while mitigating the risk of importing COVID-19 through air travel. That is universal testing. There is testing technology that aligns with our requirements for speed, accuracy, affordability, scalability and ease of use in the travel process. And we are seeing momentum towards implementation.”

Vistara has become the third Indian carrier to be a member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the trade association of more than 280 airlines, which will help it provide a seamless travel experience through an extended global network to travellers to and from India. Vistara, the full-service carrier promoted by Tata Sons Limited and Singapore Airlines Limited (SIA), recently became eligible to start international operations. Air India and Jet Airways are the two other airlines in India that are IATA members. The IATA membership will enable Vistara to collaborate with other international member airlines for codeshare and interline agreements, and provide a seamless travel experience through an extended global network to travellers to and from India, the airline said in a statement. IATA represents airlines from over 120 countries. It advocates for the interests of airlines across the globe, establishes standards to simplify process and increase passenger convenience, and helps airlines to operate safely, efficiently and economically. “This membership couldnt have come at a better time as we gear up to launch our international operations soon. Vistara has set new benchmarks for air travel in India, and with IATA?s membership we are confident to showcase Vistara’s strengths on a global scale,” Leslie Thng, Vistara chief executive officer said. Conrad Clifford, Regional Vice President, Asia Pacific, IATA, said they were looking forward to working with Vistara in shaping IATA’s priorities for India and the global aviation industry.   Source: PTI

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance cooperation in various areas of airport operations, including security, passenger experience, cargo, airport development, consulting and training. The MoU was signed by Conrad Clifford, IATA’s Regional Vice President for Asia Pacific, and Hari Marar, BIAL’s President for Airport Operations, on the sidelines of an industry event in New Delhi. This MoU is the first of its kind that IATA has signed with an Indian airport. One of the highlights of the MoU could see IATA and BIAL implementing trials of new technologies and processes, and testing concepts at Bangalore International Airport. “This will place Bangalore International Airport in the forefront of airport operations. These trials will ensure that global best practice solutions can be appropriately adapted to the Indian environment, and will provide guidance for rolling out the implementation to other Indian airports,” said Clifford. The IATA Fast Travel initiative, Passenger Facilitation program and Smart Security are among the initiatives being considered as part of the MoU. “An important objective of the MoU is to promote the efficient development of civil aviation in India to meet growing demand. By 2035, India’s passenger traffic is forecast to exceed 400 million passengers, more than double that of today. The industry will support 19 million jobs and $172 billion of India’s GDP. But for this potential to become reality, India’s airports need to have the necessary infrastructure capacity while implementing efficient processes that embrace the latest technologies,” said Clifford.

Expressing disatisfaction over the Budget ’16, Conrad Clifford, Regional Vice President, Asia Pacific, International Air Transport Association (IATA), said, “The budget had a minimal focus on aviation. We hope the government will do a better job with the National Civil Aviation Policy. While the NCAP is a step in the right direction, there are areas of concern, especially where it adds costs to the industry or where it deviates from well-established global standards. We hope the government will address three priority areas – retract the 2 per cent Regional Connectivity Fund levy, abandon the plan to auction traffic rights, and allow AERA to perform its functions independently by not enshrining any ‘Till’ for airport charges in the Policy document.”