As ACI World publishes its 2019 Annual Report, ACI World Governing Board Chair Martin Eurnekian has delivered the following message to members and the industry.
It is a great privilege to serve as Chair of the Airports Council International (ACI) World Governing Board. ACI is an organization dedicated to advancing the collective interests of the world’s airports and the communities they serve, and to promoting professional excellence in airport management and operations.
This has never been more important as our industry faces the unprecedented challenge posed by COVID-19, its effects, and impacts. These times challenge us as people, as business leaders, and as members of the airport community.
We are strong, however, and our strength is in our people. As an industry we are building on this strength to come together and work with our global partners, stakeholders and governments to navigate the current crisis and to lay the foundation for our recovery.
My term on the ACI World Board has confirmed my views that ACI is an effective and positive force in all regions of the world. This is a credit to the hard work over the years of ACI’s World and Regional Board Members, its many Standing Committees and its dedicated staff.
Together with every region, we are pursuing a global dialogue to help ensure that the voice of the airport industry is heard. The organization has a rich history of serving its members and, as we look back on 2019 for this annual report, ACI continued this tradition with even greater momentum.
ACI raised the bar in representing airports interests with governments and international organizations, developing policies and recommended practices for airports, as well as in providing guidance, training, business intelligence and subject matter mentoring.
In 2019, ACI proudly served 646 members operating 1,960 airports in 176 countries around the globe. As we look towards the future, ACI and our members are cognizant that the industry faces a challenge of a magnitude previously unthought of.
But we are on the right path. Our perseverance and continued close collaboration with the many stakeholders in the global aviation community is our strength. Our industry’s success rests with our people and our airport members. None of what we achieved in the past year would have been possible without your valued contributions, collaboration and commitment.
This will be a guiding light as we recover from this global pandemic and work towards our common vision of a safe, secure and sustainable airport industry.
Together we must ensure that aviation continues to play a vital role in facilitating global economic and social prosperity, particularly in developing countries, by fostering sustainable development.
We must ensure that it continues to generate economic growth, provides jobs, improves living standards, alleviates poverty, and delivers social and economic benefits to the local, regional and national communities that it serves.
There is no doubt that 2020 and the coming years will provide a new and daunting challenge as the industry recovers. As new trends emerge, sustainability and utilizing new technology and data to enhance the passenger experience by promoting health and safety will undoubtedly play more and more prominent roles.
This is the moment for our industry to work together like never before and to collaborate as true partners. Airports, airlines, government agencies, and other actors in this ecosystem must reach solutions that will help us all, not just some of us. We are an interconnected and interdependent industry and we must meet the challenges of this crisis together and recover together.
ACI pledges to support our members every step of the way.
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