{"id":216271,"date":"2026-01-30T12:09:33","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T11:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/?p=216271"},"modified":"2026-01-30T12:09:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T11:09:34","slug":"walsh-iata-air-bar-disruptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/walsh-iata-air-bar-disruptions","title":{"rendered":"Airline: disruptions in the sector according to Willie Walsh (IATA)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As he did last year, Willie Walsh, President of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), attended the Annual General Meeting of the Board of Airlines Representatives (BAR) France. A distinguished guest, he put into words the ills of the sector, all the challenges mentioned in the preamble by Jean-Pierre Sauvage, President for France of this association which has brought together the major airlines for three-quarters of a century, from decarbonisation to taxation to the problems of air traffic control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But before looking at the challenges facing the air transport industry, the IATA President began by taking a positive view of the past year, which has been a good one despite the disruptions in the skies around the world: \"I am delighted to be able to report that the year has been a success.<em> I've been in this business for almost 50 years now, and the geopolitical problems have always been there. I used to say that 2024 was the worst year ever, I'll say it again in 2025, and I'm sure I'll say it again in 2026. But it has to be said that airlines are remarkably resilient and capable of adapting.<\/em> \".<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the end, airlines as a whole recorded demand growth of 5.3%, driven by international traffic (+7.1 %), compared with an increase of +2.8 % on domestic flights. Even so, while the airlines' total revenues amounted to 39.5 billion dollars, this \" <em>high figure <\/em>In fact, \"the net margin was only 3.7 % and the operating profit was 6.71 %. A result that the IATA President does not hesitate to compare with that of one of the main suppliers of aircraft engines, GE Commercial Engines &amp; Services, whose operating profit reaches 26.6 %. \" <em>That's 20 points more than their customers<\/em>he stresses. <em>It's pretty depressing to see key suppliers making big profits on the back of the hard work that airlines do...<\/em> \"<\/p>\n\n\n\n<aside class=\"wp-block-varenne-link-block\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/fnam-aviation-francaise-horizon-assombri\/\" data-id=\"216045\">Read also: FNAM: French aviation faces a bleak outlook<\/a><\/p><\/aside>\n\n\n\n<p>\"<em> The success of some airlines gives us an idea of a very rich industry, but the net profitability per passenger is ridiculously low, at around 7.90 dollars, when the best margin ever achieved by our sector was around 5 % in 2017. <\/em>\"says Willie Walsh. It's an argument that has led to a great deal of criticism of the various additional costs that air transport has to face. Taxation, of course, is a regular and favourite target of industry players: while acknowledging that \" <em>paraffin, a major cost factor for the industry, is generally not taxed <\/em>The President of IATA describes an industry facing pressure that is out of step with its real profits, which are lower than those thought by those for whom the obvious solution is \"...\". <em>to tax this industry <\/em>\". All the more so, according to Willie Walsh, as environmental taxes will have much less impact on carbon emissions than on aircraft load factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-retards-a-foison\">Delays galore<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>But taxation is not the only subject of Willie Walsh's wrath, with poor air traffic management in Europe also in his sights, the consequences of which are estimated by IATA at 16 billion dollars. Poor estimates of traffic growth, poor coordination, a dunce's cap handed out hands down to France: the extra cost associated with air traffic control is \"... a serious problem for Europe\".<em> clearly unacceptable<\/em> \". <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The President of IATA puts this weighting alongside the expected changes in passenger rights, which are considered necessary but not free from bias: \" <em>Airlines are not opposed to compensating their passengers when they make mistakes. There's obviously no objection to that,\" says Willie Walsh. But they do object to compensating passengers when the errors are the fault of air navigation service providers (ANSPs) or airports.<\/em> \". At the same time, he took aim at the members of the European Parliament, whose decisions are not based on solid data on the causes of delays and cancellations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<aside class=\"wp-block-varenne-link-block\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/european-parliament-passenger-rights\/\" data-id=\"215723\">Read also: Passenger rights: the European Parliament postpones changes<\/a><\/p><\/aside>\n\n\n\n<p>As far as delays are concerned, another black spot has been highlighted: the longer delivery times for new aircraft, which are weighing on the sector - $11.4 billion announced by IATA - by limiting the capacity to increase capacity. As a result, Willie Walsh expects traffic growth to be lower in 2026 (+4.7%) than in 2025 (+5.3%) because of these supply chain problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last but not least: sustainable air fuel (SAF). Will air transport be able to meet the incorporation quotas set for the European Union for 2035, i.e. 20 % of SAF, including 5 % of e-SAF, sustainable synthetic fuels? Willie Walsh's answer is a resounding no. \" <em>I've always thought that the EU's ambitions were unattainable, and I still do. <\/em>\". There are two reasons for this: the lack of investment in SAF production and the high cost of renewable electricity in Europe for e-SAF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\" <em>In my opinion, we need to review the situation<\/em> \"says the IATA President. Without, however, calling into question the demand for SAF in the long term. \" <em>There is no doubt that the industry will need it\", with production representing an opportunity for many countries that do not produce oil or gas and are dependent on imports.<\/em> \"says Willie Walsh. Or when geopolitics can serve aviation.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Delays due to air traffic control, aircraft delivery times, SAF production still on hold, but taxes well underway: Willie Walsh, President of IATA, discussed the challenges facing the airline industry at the General Meeting of BAR France.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":216273,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[131,2359],"type-darticle":[52],"n_magazine":[],"class_list":["post-216271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aerien","tag-compagnies-aeriennes","tag-saf","type-darticle-breve","vapo-free"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A\u00e9rien : de nombreux d\u00e9fis \u00e0 surpasser selon Willie Walsh (IATA)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"SAF, taxes, contr\u00f4le a\u00e9rien, retards des livraisons d&#039;avion : Willie Walsh, pr\u00e9sident de l\u2019IATA, est revenu sur les d\u00e9fis de l&#039;industrie a\u00e9rienne.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/walsh-iata-air-bar-disruptions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A\u00e9rien : les perturbations du secteur selon Willie Walsh (IATA)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SAF, taxes, contr\u00f4le a\u00e9rien, retards des livraisons d&#039;avion : Willie Walsh, pr\u00e9sident de l\u2019IATA, est revenu sur les d\u00e9fis de l&#039;industrie a\u00e9rienne.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/walsh-iata-air-bar-disruptions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Voyages d&#039;affaires\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-30T11:09:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-30T11:09:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/bar-walsh.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"488\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Arnaud Deltenre\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Arnaud Deltenre\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/walsh-iata-bar-aerien-perturbations\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/walsh-iata-bar-aerien-perturbations\",\"name\":\"A\u00e9rien : de nombreux d\u00e9fis \u00e0 surpasser selon Willie Walsh (IATA)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/walsh-iata-bar-aerien-perturbations#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/walsh-iata-bar-aerien-perturbations#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/bar-walsh.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-30T11:09:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-30T11:09:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5c156f900a0e8a3db500e35c5be2647f\"},\"description\":\"SAF, taxes, contr\u00f4le a\u00e9rien, retards des livraisons d'avion : Willie Walsh, pr\u00e9sident de l\u2019IATA, est revenu sur les d\u00e9fis de l'industrie a\u00e9rienne.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/walsh-iata-bar-aerien-perturbations#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/walsh-iata-bar-aerien-perturbations\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/walsh-iata-bar-aerien-perturbations#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/bar-walsh.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/bar-walsh.jpg\",\"width\":650,\"height\":488,\"caption\":\"Willie Walsh, le pr\u00e9sident de l'IATA, interview\u00e9 lors de l'assembl\u00e9e g\u00e9n\u00e9rale du BAR France.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/walsh-iata-bar-aerien-perturbations#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Accueil\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A\u00e9rien : les perturbations du secteur selon Willie Walsh (IATA)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/\",\"name\":\"Voyages d&#039;affaires\",\"description\":\"media fran\u00e7ais du Voyage d&#039;Affaires &amp; du MICE\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5c156f900a0e8a3db500e35c5be2647f\",\"name\":\"Arnaud Deltenre\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/author\/arnaud\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Airline: many challenges to overcome according to Willie Walsh (IATA)","description":"SAF, taxes, air traffic control, delays in aircraft deliveries: Willie Walsh, President of IATA, looks back at the challenges facing the airline industry.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/walsh-iata-air-bar-disruptions","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"A\u00e9rien : les perturbations du secteur selon Willie Walsh (IATA)","og_description":"SAF, taxes, contr\u00f4le a\u00e9rien, retards des livraisons d'avion : Willie Walsh, pr\u00e9sident de l\u2019IATA, est revenu sur les d\u00e9fis de l'industrie a\u00e9rienne.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/walsh-iata-air-bar-disruptions","og_site_name":"Voyages d&#039;affaires","article_published_time":"2026-01-30T11:09:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-01-30T11:09:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":650,"height":488,"url":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/bar-walsh.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Arnaud Deltenre","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Arnaud Deltenre","Estimated reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/walsh-iata-bar-aerien-perturbations","url":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/walsh-iata-bar-aerien-perturbations","name":"Airline: many challenges to overcome according to Willie Walsh (IATA)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/walsh-iata-bar-aerien-perturbations#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/walsh-iata-bar-aerien-perturbations#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/bar-walsh.jpg","datePublished":"2026-01-30T11:09:33+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-30T11:09:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5c156f900a0e8a3db500e35c5be2647f"},"description":"SAF, taxes, air traffic control, delays in aircraft deliveries: Willie Walsh, President of IATA, looks back at the challenges facing the airline industry.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/walsh-iata-bar-aerien-perturbations#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/walsh-iata-bar-aerien-perturbations"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/walsh-iata-bar-aerien-perturbations#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/bar-walsh.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/bar-walsh.jpg","width":650,"height":488,"caption":"Willie Walsh, le pr\u00e9sident de l'IATA, interview\u00e9 lors de l'assembl\u00e9e g\u00e9n\u00e9rale du BAR France."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/walsh-iata-bar-aerien-perturbations#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Accueil","item":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A\u00e9rien : les perturbations du secteur selon Willie Walsh (IATA)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/","name":"Business travel","description":"THE FRENCH BUSINESS TRAVEL &amp; MICE MEDIA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5c156f900a0e8a3db500e35c5be2647f","name":"Arnaud Deltenre","url":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/author\/arnaud"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216271"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216291,"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216271\/revisions\/216291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216271"},{"taxonomy":"type-darticle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type-darticle?post=216271"},{"taxonomy":"n_magazine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/n_magazine?post=216271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}