"The connectivity provided by aviation is vital to economic growth and development. Aviation supports jobs and trade, and helps people to lead better lives. But airlines need to have confidence that they will be able to repatriate their revenues in order to bring these benefits to markets," says Alexandre de Juniac, IATA's director general and CEO.
IATA says it has "had some recent success". The USD600 million backlog in Nigeria has been cleared and it has made USD120 million of progress from a peak of over USD500 million in Angola.
The top five markets with remaining blocked funds are:
- Venezuela, where airlines have been unable to repatriate USD3.78 billion;
- Angola, where approximately USD386 million remains blocked;
- Sudan where USD170 million is blocked;
- Bangladesh, where USD95 million is blocked;
- Zimbabwe, where USD76 million is blocked.
Given the deepening economic crisis in Venezuela, a resolution appears to be unlikely in the short term so the majority of the almost USD5 billion total will continue to remain outstanding. However, Mr de Juniac says IATA is "encouraged by the recent developments in Nigeria and Angola, and hope other states will also move quickly to address blocked funds".