T

he 70th annual general meeting (AGM) of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) concluded on Tuesday with airline members focusing their attention on safety and security issues.

Speaking to The Jakarta Post and Kompas dailies after the AGM concluded, flag carrier Garuda Indonesia president director Emirsyah Satar said the issues included unruly passengers and aircraft tracking.

'€œThe new Montreal Protocol allows a country to take legal action against passengers creating disturbances in-flight, even if the passengers are foreigners or the aircrafts are foreign-registered,'€ he said.

'€œPreviously the jurisdiction lay where the aircraft was registered, even though the disturbances took place in another country.'€

Emirsyah also emphasized Garuda'€™s commitment to safety, pointing to the fact that the airline was among the early adopters of the IATA operational safety audit (IOSA).

On the aircraft tracking being studied by IATA, Emirsyah said it should be clear who would bear the cost of additional systems onboard the aircraft.

'€œAirlines cannot be asked to pay for the bills because it will in the end be passed to the passengers,'€ he said.

'€œIt should be the responsibility of states, as airlines pay air charges when entering the air space of other countries.'€

Delegates at the AGM, however, all agreed that cost was not an issue when it came to safety.

Separately, IATA regional vice president of the Asia Pacific Conrad Clifford told the Post and Kompas that IATA was looking at ways of tracking aircraft via existing equipment and systems.

'€œThis way, the cost will not be punitive,'€ he said after the AGM ended.

'€œWe'€™re looking for a system that is not too expensive.'€

Clifford also expected the new Indonesian government to prioritize improving airports, especially Soekarno-Hatta International Airport just outside Jakarta, ahead of the implementation of the ASEAN Open Sky Policy next year.

He also wanted the government to closely regulate airlines in Indonesia that were experiencing rapid growth.

'€œGaruda and Lion Air are being held back by the limited capacity at the airport,'€ he said. '€œIndonesia has great potential to become a regional hub.'€

Moves by airlines to keep track of their aircraft in real time have followed the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines'€™ Flight MH370 in March this year.

Senior executives attending the AGM said they needed to install a tracking system to ensure no more airliners could simply vanish as the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER did.

They, however, were concerned that these moves would eventually see passengers also bearing at least some of the cost of automated tracking when it became mandatory.

'€œThis would be an additional cost and would be passed onto passengers,'€ Finnair'€™s chief executive Pekka Vauramo told Reuters at the IATA meeting.