ROME — The election of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States is “generally” seen by airlines as “a net positive” for the industry, International Air Transport Association (IATA) Director General Willie Walsh said today on the sidelines of the association’s Wings of Change Europe (WOCE) conference in Rome.
Firstly, said Walsh, when Trump served as the 45th President during the onset of the Covid pandemic in 2020, Congress passed — and Trump signed into law — the CARES Act, which among other measures authorized billions in aid to airlines and aviation businesses.
“I think they see that as a recognition from President Trump of the importance of the industry in the United States,” Walsh stated when asked by Runway Girl Network what a Trump presidency will mean to commercial aviation.
Airlines also anticipate that Trump will take a less heavy-handed approach to regulating industry, he said, and reverse some of the decisions made under the Biden Administration.
For context, under a sweeping final rule that went into effect this year, the U.S. Department of Transportation created universal standards for refunds owed to airline passengers traveling on flights to, from, or within the United States.
Walsh also pointed to the US Justice Department’s decision to reject JetBlue Airways’ planned acquisition of Spirit Airlines “when it was obvious to anybody that Spirit needed to secure their future”. Spirit has since filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to restructure its operations.
IATA is the trade association for the world’s airlines, representing some 330 operators and over 80% of global air traffic. Walsh cited the attractiveness to airlines of a “move to a lighter touch regulation of the industry” under Trump, and suggested that over-regulation in Europe is hurting competition, as highlighted this fall by a report from Mario Draghi (former Italian PM and President of the European Central Bank).
The so-called ‘Draghi Report’ called for a new EU competitiveness framework. That type of framework might have eased Lufthansa’s planned acquisition of 41 percent of ITA Airways, the successor to bankrupt Alitalia. Whilst the European Commission this summer conditionally approved the deal, Lufthansa must implement a variety of remedies to address the EC’s competitive concerns.
Antonino Turicchi, the chairman of ITA, noted during the press briefing that the deal was inked back in May 2023, and that discussions actually began back in 2021. He is hopeful that final approval will arrive in the near-term.
More broadly, he suggested regulators should consider that aviation “is an industry that needs investments, from the aircraft to the fuel to the technologies”. Such investment will be key to meeting EU regulatory requirements around the use of sustainable aviation fuel.
Europe, added Walsh, needs to recognize that competition may disappear if regulation is too heavy handed.
IATA’s Walsh and ITA’s Turicchi at the press conference in Rome.
The IATA chief said he personally agrees with member airlines that Trump’s election will generally prove to be “a net positive” for commercial aviation, but admitted that he doesn’t yet know how the broader political climate will impact the industry.
During a presentation this morning at the WOCE conference, Henry Wilkinson, chief intelligence officer at Dragonfly, offered a sobering assessment of the ‘Trump effect’ for Europe, saying stakeholders should reasonably expect “difficult shifts” in EU/US relations.
An America-first approach plus new tariffs will likely “strain ties”, warned Wilkinson. Withholding military aid from Ukraine and NATO decisions will be bellwethers, he added.
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Featured image credited to Jason Rabinowitz
