GroundSupportWorldWide.com |

Asia-Pacific must define government/industry cooperation on security and find a better way to deal with the cost burden. Currently airlines pay US$ 5.9 billion a year for security. "These are national security measures. That is a government responsibility, including the bill," said Bisignani.

Liberalization: "Asian aviation will not reach its potential if the airlines are constrained to old ways of doing business. Industry is preparing for regional liberalization of market access with the ASEAN target date of 2015. It is important that the target date is met. This is already well-behind the industry leading developments in the US-EU Open Skies agreement. Second stage talks will conclude this year with ownership being the most important issue," said Bisignani.

"To move liberalization forward, IATA took the extra-ordinary step of calling governments together with IATA's Agenda for Freedom. After a year of talks, in November 2009, seven governments, including the US, the European Commission, Singaporeand Malaysiasigned a multilateral statement of policy principles. These principles preserve a level playing field while addressing liberalization of market access, pricing and ownership. The challenge for Asiais to implement these principles in the region's bilateral arrangement," said Bisignani.