IATA hopes lessons are learned from the “Dutch disease”

IATA Director General Willie Walsh hopes that the chaos ensuing from the planned capacity reduction at Amsterdam Schiphol airport is a warning signal to other governments. They need to follow international guidelines, specifically, ICAO’s Balanced Approach, to justify capacity reductions. While IATA’s position is perfectly understandable for a lobby organization, it shows the almost unbridgeable gap between the airline industry and some politicians, let alone what environmentalists demand.

The capacity reduction at Schiphol has been part of each major speech of Walsh. He vented his frustration at the AGM in Istanbul in June, calling Schiphol “the worst airport in the world.” Walsh went at length again to explain his views this week during the IATA Global Media Day in Geneva.