Mr. Chairman, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Arab Air Carriers Organization convenes its Annual General Meeting for the second time in its history in Abu Dhabi – United Arab Emirates. This august gathering met here for the first time in 1983 under the patronage of Gulf Air, which was then the flag carrier of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman. We came back three decades later to Abu Dhabi under the patronage of Etihad Airways, the fastest growing airline in the world, to witness firsthand the magnitude of the enormous development that Abu Dhabi saw during that period within the sustainable development drive, which never receded. Here, I would like to thank the government of Abu Dhabi and of the United Arab Emirates, as well as Mr. James Hogan, the Chairman of the AGM, his assistants and the entire staff of Etihad Airways for the outstanding arrangements and the distinguished hospitality accorded to the most important event of AACO this year.

Etihad Airways has contributed to this tangible growth witnessed by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. This decisively proves that the presence of an airline as a contributor to the development of a country is definitely an added value at the level of sustainable macroeconomic performance. This doctrine should be a model to be followed by other countries rather than being sometimes the subject of criticism. The air transport industry as a whole faces a serious problem. In fact, many governments around the world target airlines as a source for raising easy revenue that has nothing to do at all with any service rendered by those governments to the industry. The proper model for the relationship between governments and airlines, registered in own territories, is the one applied by the United Arab Emirates and by other countries in the Arab region and elsewhere. Those countries consider aviation a positive contributor to the economic growth and, hence, the governments of these countries act as facilitators of that role rather than as barriers and burden creators over the shoulders of this industry.

There is no doubt that the world of today changed tremendously from which it was in the last time we met here. We are very proud that the Arab airlines have become a positive factor in this process of change and evolution, instead of being only at the receiving end.

So, welcome to one of the most important air transport hubs of the twenty first century.

Abdul Wahab Teffaha
Secretary General
 

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