ACI APAC & MID Economics Committee Promotes Liberalisation to Enhance Air Connectivity

The 20th ACI Asia-Pacific & Middle East Economics Committee (the Committee) met in Muscat, Oman between 19 and 20 November 2023.

The meeting was led by Chair of the ACI Asia-Pacific & Middle East Economics Committee, Mr. Nagy Abu Zeid, representing Oman Airports Management Company and Vice Chair Mr. François Southarewsky, representing Kansai Airports. The meeting was attended by around 20 aviation economists from airports and World Business Partners (WBP) in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. Over the two-day meeting, members shared the latest traffic trends and forecast, as well as capital expenditure plans in their respective airports. 

In addition, ACI Asia-Pacific & Middle East introduced the finalized Airport Connectivity Study (the Study) that was jointly conducted with the esteemed consultant, PwC. In particularly, the Study emphasized that any connectivity index, besides measuring the conventional indicators focus on direct and indirect air connectivity such as frequency of flights, seat capacity and the number of destinations, should offer a comprehensive and consumer-centric approach, which shall include, at a given market, the ability for its passengers to access the global air transport network through quality connections.

As such, the newly developed ACI Asia-Pacific & Middle East Connectivity Index considers the importance of a range of factors that include the affordability, options for carrier categories, options for alliances, connection time and the economic importance of the destinations to the reference market. These factors are not conventionally included in existing measurements of air connectivity.

The two-day meeting also included insightful discussions on the importance of innovation and technological advancements, data sharing, risk management, and the needs for ACI Asia-Pacific & Middle East to establish more channels to boost financing and technical assistance options for small airports, especially the ones in developing countries.

ACI Asia-Pacific & Middle East would like to thank Oman Airports for hosting the meeting. The next meeting with be held in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in May 2024.