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* Airlines vent anger at COVID-era online gathering
* New IATA boss pledges tougher line with governments
* Despite vaccines, huge hurdles remain
By Laurence Frost
PARIS, Nov 25 (Reuters) - For an industry that prides itself
on bringing people together, it was a particular humiliation for
airlines to have to resort to video conferencing for their
annual industry meeting this week - and not one they are ready
to repeat.
Brought to their knees by the COVID-19 pandemic and
struggling to convince governments to replace quarantines with
testing, airlines turned to veteran IAG boss Willie
Walsh to lead industry association IATA from next April.
"My style will be different from what has gone before me,"
said Walsh, known to British Airways unions as something of a
bruiser, as he thanked outgoing IATA chief Alexandre de Juniac.
"I too am a businessman and I too understand how governments
operate, but I'm even more unhappy and more critical of how they
get things done (and) how they've failed to get things done."
Without a doubt, this will be Walsh's biggest challenge yet.
In three days of media briefings around the meeting, IATA
further downgraded its financial outlook for the sector as a
second wave of coronavirus cases in Europe and the United States
points to more heavy losses and bankruptcies.
That may test Walsh's aversion to bailouts and subsidies.
Little was said about further aid at the meeting, which ended on
Wednesday, though de Juniac called days earlier for $80 billion
in support on top of the $160 billion received.
Despite vaccines promising eventual relief, executives worry
they might reduce the immediate pressure on policymakers to
reopen travel safely.
In the short term, meanwhile, they are having to roll out
apps designed to manage health certificates and the broader
chaos.
Governments may also use air travel to encourage vaccine
uptake - drawing airlines into a political minefield.
Australia's Qantas said it expected to require all
passengers to show vaccination certificates.
"We know in some countries we have some difficulties to
convince the population to be vaccinated," de Juniac told
Reuters before the meeting - warning that any general
requirement could effectively bar people from travel.
For airlines that survive COVID-19, intense environmental
pressures still lie in wait, as several executives observed;
"flight-shaming" has not gone away.
In Europe, the industry is battling new green taxes and
regulation while facing higher investment demands for cleaner
aircraft and fuel technology development.
Bailouts and borrowing have swollen global airlines' debt by
more than half to $651 billion, IATA Chief Economist Brian
Pearce said - a mountain that will undermine their ability to
fund more efficient new aircraft, let alone green innovation.
Underlining the financial strain, Norwegian Air
became the latest crisis casualty when it filed for Irish
bankruptcy protection days before the meeting.
"Airlines are setting themselves up for horrendous balance
sheet structures," said James Halstead, managing partner at
consulting firm Aviation Strategy, who believes airlines will
continue to struggle to influence policy.
"The people in the driving seat are health authorities -
it's a massive health crisis, so they don't want people moving
around," Haltead said. "The feeling is that aviation can be
tackled later."
(Reporting by Laurence Frost; additional reporting by Tim
Hepher; Editing by Mark Potter)
