The aviation leaders gathered to discuss this year topic: Education and Performance in Aviation.
Dr Kostas Iatrou, Director General of Hermes, stressed that given both the traffic growth and the phenomenal chaanges brought by automation and artificial intelligence, the air industry needs to grow its awareness vis-a-vis these challenges, to proact with future needs in mind and this meand making “education and training its top priorites”
Henrik Holelei, Director General for Mobility and Transport of the European Commision, welcomed the theme of the Forum because it focused on “the need to make sure that the best and the brightest are continuously attracted to this sector”. He talked about the technological development of the years to come, from drones to artificial intelligecence, which “will bring fundamental change in the way we go about our lives”. The aviation sector needs to “ensure that these existing technological developments will be stifled by the lac of human skills ready to operate them and that will not undermine the social and working conditions of those who are working in the industry”. He talked about “fit-for-purpose aviation professionals” and the need to “change our global approach to aviation training methods from a traditional qualification-based approach to a more competency-based method” that will “support continuous learning and performance improvement”
Dr. Olumuyins Benard Aliu, President of the Council, ICAO, highlighted the current rate of traffic growth confronting global aviation and the many challenges it poses for the next generation of aviation pilots, technical specialists, managers and leaders, stressing that “while this growth in connectivity is highly beneficial to global socio-economic prosperity, it also carries with it some critical challenges given that increasing flight and passenger volumes need to be properly assessed and managed to maintain the historically remarkable safety and efficiency of our network.” And continued by emphizing that “This is why the enhancement of regulatory capacity, and the modernization of aviation infrastructure and human resources development approaches, has become critical and why we needed to prioritize the effective alignment of national and regional aviation development plans with ICAO’s Global Plans,”
Alexandre de Juniac, Director General and CEO of IATA, highlighted three areas where he sees as challenges in finding, retaining and developing the people that «we will need to take our industry—the business of freedom—into the future»:
Positioning aviation as a responsible industry and a good career opportunity;
Finding learning and development resources in developing nations; and,
Balancing gender across all aspects of aviation and at all levels of seniority.
He stated that there are two common elements in all three of these.
The first is the need for urgency. It will take time to achieve results in these areas. «But that is no excuse to delay action. The world in which we do business is rapidly changing and we need a workforce that is developing at an equal – if not greater – pace»
The second is the need for a multi-stakeholder approach to finding solutions.
«No single entity will be able to deliver success».
He commended Hermes—a multi-stakeholder leadership forum—on taking up the topic of Education and Performance as its theme for the year.
Angela Gittens, Director General of ACI World, spoke on the importance of training and recruitment in the aviation sector as “According to the latest ACI World Airport Traffic Forecasts global passenger traffic is expected to double to 16.97 billion by 2034,[ …] “This is based on a projected growth rate of 4.3% per annum and to 20.9 billion passengers by 2040, based on a 4.1% compounded annual growth rate».
“Meeting future growth also requires investing in a skilled, committed and diverse talent pool. I’m proud to report that ACI Global Training is the world’s leading provider of airport management and operations education.» adding “We offer executive leadership, professional accreditation, subject-matter competency and personalized in-house training courses, with delivery in the classroom as well as a wide range of web-based coursework.”