Goingtomeet.com Press

New Delhi, India: 2nd India Civil Aviation Week Airport & Airline 2008 Expo held in March 2008 brought together 146 participants from 18 countries and 3352 trade visitors. The 3-day international conference focusing on The Civil Aviation Industry in India: The Road Ahead attracted 41 leading speakers and 516 delegates.

The event was inaugurated by Shri Praful Patel, Hon’ble Minister for Civil Aviation, Govt. of India. In his inaugural address, Shri Patel remarked. It is the need of the hour that we bring in more participation in this fast-growing and vital sector. India’s aviation is now acknowledged world-wide as one of the fastest growing in the world. And of course, there is huge potential ahead for us in a country of 1.1 billion people.

AA 08 Expo showcased the latest in airports & airlines, general aviation, aircraft interiors, air cargo & logistics and maintenance, repair & overhaul (MRO) services products, services and technologies aimed at improving the quality and ease of air travel in India.

The Who’s Who of the Indian civil aviation industry including the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Club One Air, Deccan Aviation, GATI, GMR Group, Kingfisher Airlines, Safexpress and many others were present at the event. There was also a significant international presence at the event with sizeable delegations from New Zealand – Partner Country to the event and Manitoba an aviation hub in Canada. Other important displays were from the UK and France. Many international players are keen to penetrate the Indian aviation market, which is currently one of the fastest growing markets in the world.

A CEO Round Table on Aviation was organized in conjunction with Ernst & Young Pvt. Ltd., one of the leading consultancy firms in India and NDTV Profit, a leading business news channel in India. The panel discussion was inaugurated by Shri Ashok Chawla, Hon’ble Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Govt. of India. Shri Chawla participated in the panel discussion along with other leading names in the aviation industry including Mr. B.S. Shantharaju, CEO, Delhi International Airport Ltd., Mr. Manav Singh, CEO and Managing Director, Club One Air and Mr. Kapil Kaul, CEO, Centre for Asia Pacifiic Aviation. The panel discussion was an interesting blend of perspectives from policy makers as well as industry majors from the fields of business aviation, airport development, aircraft financing etc.

The event was supported by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Airports Authority of India and a host of leading international associations like the International Business Aviation Council and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. The Airports Authority of India showcased its plans for modernizing 35 non-metro airports across the country at the event. The Delhi International Airport Ltd. and the Hyderabad International Airport Ltd. were Partner Airports to the event. In fact, the latter showcased the brand new world-class Rajiv Gandhi International Airport Ltd. which was officially dedicated to the nation just days before the event.

The 3rd India Civil Aviation Week will be held in New Delhi during August 2009 bringing key participants in the aviation industry under one roof to explore new opportunities for the progress of India’s growing civil aviation sector.

For further details please contact:
Hena Ahmad (Mgr- Communications)
Exhibitions India Group
Mob: + 91 9999600622
Tel: + 91 11 42795168
Email: henaa@eigroup.in

Pittsburgh Airlines face slim profit margins because their high fixed costs of labor, equipment and fuel leave them few cost-cutting options. In the face of record-high fuel costs, Airlines have identified credit card fees as their largest controllable cost and are encouraging their customers to pay them with alternate payment solutions, which offer them significantly lower payment fees than traditional credit cards. Conversely, airlines earn billions of Dollars each year from their own co-branded credit cards, which offer customers frequent flyer miles for purchases. The first Airline Payment Summit to be held April 9 – 10 in Toronto will bring together airlines, alternate payment solutions and credit card companies to discuss this complex landscape of airline payments.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the industry as a whole earned an estimated $5.6 billion U.S. Dollars in 2007, which represented a 1.1% net margin on sales of $490 billion. At the same time, a recent study by Edgar, Dunn & Company and the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) revealed that passengers pay for their airline tickets 83% of the time with credit cards with fees averaging $12 per ticket, costing the industry $1.5 billion annually. In an urgent attempt to reduce this figure, the websites of many airlines are now crowded with a variety of lower-fee payment options, including Bill me Later, PayPal, TeleCheck and Western Union. For business travelers, who tend to book through corporate travel agencies, airlines are encouraging the use the world’s first credit card, UATP- a payment solution for travel purchases that is gentle on fees, since UATP is owned by the airline industry.

Michael Smith, Airline Payment Summit Chairman and Director of the U.K.-based consultancy SeaMountain, says: While on the one hand airlines work to cut traditional credit card payment costs, on the other, mileage-earning co-branded credit cards generate huge amounts of cash for both the airlines and the issuing merchant banks.â€? Smith continues: “Airline co-branded credit cards are among the most profitable cards for banks due to emotional behavior driving customers to collect more and more miles.â€? For each mile that a customer is given by a credit card issuer for purchases, the airline receives a payment of generally between one and two U.S. Cents. For a large airline, this can add up to hundreds of millions of revenue in a single year. The Airline Payment Summit will therefore discuss the question of whether airlines should receive a reduction on credit card fees, since they drive the majority of their direct sales through the credit card channel, while also generating unmatched profits for credit card banks through airline co-branded cards. The event will also examine payments from the point of view of card issuers, which are questioning the value of the frequent flyer miles which they purchase from airlines, since available frequent flyer seats are becoming scarcer and scarcer.

The duality of airline payments- reducing payment costs, while also increasing payment revenues from co-branded credit cards, will be high on the agenda of Airline Payment Summit, which will also present other important payment-related issues for airlines, including barter, fraud, information security, onboard payments, multi-currency payments and more. Event Sponsors include American Express, Bill Me Later, BizXchange, eBillme, Eurocommerce, Global Collect, Guestlogix, PayPal and UATP.

About Airline Information:
Airline Information is an established innovator in aviation-related conferences and publications. www.airlineinformation.org

About SeaMountain:
Practitioners in the Art and Science of Marketing. www.seamountain.co.uk

Media Contact:
Christopher Staab
Head of Conferences
Airline Information – www.airlinepaymentsummit.com
Tel. +1 305 542 9901