IATA regional chief praises Qatar for accommodating aviation during pandemic

IATA regional chief praises Qatar for accommodating aviation during pandemic

IATA regional vice-president for Africa and Middle East Kamil Alawadhi has praised Qatar and the UAE for accommodating the concerns of the aviation industry, while placing restrictions at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the 78th IATA AGM and World Air Transport Summit in Doha on Sunday he said, “in Qatar aviation was a prominent member of the committee to tackle Covid-19 situation. Consequently, the decisions were made with aviation in mind.

“In many other countries in the region, decisions were not taken with a collaborative approach and aviation in mind. This has hugely impacted the aviation industry in the region. The rest of the countries should have looked at Qatar and the UAE and said this is how we should have done it,” Alawadhi noted.

Earlier making a presentation on regional aviation, Alawadhi said the Middle East is recovering and said the regional carriers are currently at 65% of the 2019 levels in terms of revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs), which is a “better” performance than in the previous quarter.

“The opening of the international markets, especially China for which Middle Eastern countries serve as hubs, facilitated the recovery and will drive further growth in RPKs,” Alawadhi