RJ participates in IATA's 61st general meeting

Majali and Vice President/Commercial Hussein Dabbas represented Royal Jordanian in the meeting.

Majali was elected member of the Board of Governors in appreciation of RJ's role in the International Air Transport Association, for its reputation in the fields of air safety and passenger services, amongst international air carriers, and for its participation in all international and regional assemblies.

The Board of Governors is IATA's highest authority. Its 30 members are elected by IATA from among 270 international airlines chief executives. The board sets the association's rules and regulations and submits the projects to be implemented to the general meeting; all this in order to promote the air transport industry and facilitate travel for passengers.

More than 600 representatives of the member air carriers took part in the discussions of the AGM, which concentrated on several key industry issues and tackled the challenges posed especially by the high surge in oil prices. The air transport industry is expected to undergo a $6 billion loss in 2005 as airlines' fuel bills jumped from $44 billion in 2003 to $83 billion in 2005.

The two-day meeting put forth the five initiatives set out by IATA in order to ease travel worldwide, which are: 100 percent implementation of e-ticketing worldwide by 2007, implementation of Common Use Self Service (CUSS) kiosks worldwide, bar code standard for boarding passes, Radio Frequency Identification (RFI) for baggage management and implementation of paperless cargo by 2010.

Majali was among the main speakers at two of AGM's sessions which discussed means of driving down operations costs and examined the speedy implementation of e-ticketing, respectively. He also participated in a roundtable discussion about the organizational features of the aviation industry and the obstacles that hinder liberalization and equal opportunities in the industry.

Royal Jordanian hosted the 53rd annual general meeting of IATA in 1997, and the 62nd assembly will be convened in Paris.