The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has urged the US Government to renew their role as a leader in the global aviation industry and take action to make the global system safer and more secure.

IATA director general and CEO Giovanni Bisignani has outlined a prescription to help the US aviation industry recover from a crisis worse than the period following 9/11.

“The industry situation remains bleak. With rising fuel costs and falling yields, recent optimism in the global economy has not appeared on the industry’s bottom line,” Bisignani said.

“President Obama has a full agenda, but aviation policy must also be among his White House priorities. Putting NextGen on a fast track would provide tremendous stimulus to this country including 77,000 new jobs,” he said.

The body also called for greater cooperation between the US and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to share safety information and data and further provide global standards for training aviation professionals.

IATA outlined steps such as avoiding duplicate and conflicting data collection by boosting coordination across the US Department of Homeland Security and suggested that stakeholders should be consulted and the focus should be on harmonised global standards.

On the environmental front, the US government was called upon to work together with industry to reach the goal of carbon neutral growth from 2020.

IATA has also suggested that accelerating the implementation of NextGen air traffic management and creating frameworks to support investments in sustainable biofuels by US are important steps to reduce the country’s contributions to emissions.

On commercial freedom, the IATA also strongly advised the US government to complete the process of domestic deregulation, which began three decades ago.