Emirates' Clark Says More Needs To Be Done On Safety

Emirates' President Tim Clark slammed the aviation industry's inability to quickly locate lost aircraft, and said more needed to be done to ensure air passenger safety in general.

"As far as aircraft tracking is concerned, it's a disgrace," Clark told IATA members on Thursday.

Two weeks after EgyptAir MS804 crashed into the Mediterranean killing all 66 people on board, the flight recorders are still being sought, in the latest example of difficulties in locating devices vital in crash investigations.

Safety and security are two of the main challenges facing airline executives at the IATA annual meeting in Dublin, after figures showed air passenger demand in April rose at its slowest rate since January 2015, dampened by attacks on Brussels airport in March.

Earlier on Thursday, IATA members formally called for intensified cooperation among governments and across the air transport industry to help keep passengers safe.

The suicide bomb attacks at Brussels airport killed 16 people, adding to anxiety arising from the downing of a Russian Metrojet flight in Egypt last October which killed all 224 people on board.

IATA Director General Tony Tyler said that IATA would push for measures to ease delays at airports, after these were viewed as "soft targets".

Amongst IATA's proposals to prevent delays were home printed baggage tags and better airport scanning technology.

On plane tracking, IATA said it expected to agree by the end of 2016 on the best way to quickly recover data from the data recorders on every aircraft that record flight information and help shed light on the causes of air disasters.