O ALTA Aviation Law Americas brings together aviation sector experts in Buenos Aires to discuss the main challenges and opportunities from a legal perspective. The event was opened by ALTA CEO José Ricardo Botelho, Hernán Gómez, Undersecretary of Air Transport of Argentina, and ANAC Argentina interventor Julia Cordero.
In the entitled “Roap for regional integration in Latin America”, leaders from the aeronautical sector discussed the opportunities and barriers to treating flights between Latin American countries as domestic.
Viviana Martin, Global Director of Institutional Relations at Avianca and President of Avianca Costa Rica, highlighted the importance of integrating markets and reducing regulatory barriers. Hernán Gómez spoke about the need for a political decision to reform the sector in Argentina, aiming at the implementation of open skies, which will strengthen the country's competitiveness.
The importance of promoting supranational alignment between countries in the region, through the harmonization of smart regulations, was highlighted by Ricardo Catanant, Director of ANAC Brazil.
Regarding regional integration, Paola Plá, Deputy Director General of the Dominican Institute of Civil Aviation (IDAC), indicated that they the initiatives proposed by CLAC that seek to strengthen and accelerate the pace of liberalization of regional air transport. When referring to the barriers to integration, she mentioned the multiplicity of bilateral air services agreements and their differences, which requires a process of reviewing these agreements to ensure that they comply with the policies to be established and ensure the harmonization of these policies.
Along the same lines, Mauricio Sana, CEO of Flybondi, highlighted the company’s efforts to facilitate traffic between Argentina and Brazil. According to him, it is essential to accelerate regulatory reforms and eliminate some economic, operational and labor obstacles. Jaime Binder, secretary of the Latin American Civil Aviation Commission (CLAC), emphasized the importance of regulations geared towards regional integration. “When we take a general overview of the sector, we realize that an open skies policy is closer than ever in the region,” explained Binder.
The need for greater collaboration between governments, regulatory authorities and the private sector to facilitate regional integration was a consensus during the debate. It was concluded that harmonizing regulatory policies will increase countries’ competitiveness for the development of an essential sector, offering more options and benefits to engers and boosting economic growth.
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