00:00That's James Goodison. Joining me now is Anita Menderata, who is a special advisor to the
00:05UN Secretary General of Tourism. Anita, it's always great to talk to you. A nationwide
00:09disruption like this is really quite extraordinary. Given that we know how fragile and old the
00:14system is, how was this allowed to happen?
00:23I beg your pardon. Sorry, Sally, thank you very much for the invitation to join you.
00:27And you're absolutely right. How could this possibly happen in one of the most competitive,
00:32fast-growing travel and trade countries in the world? I think what's really important here is
00:38that when we look at the actual infrastructure challenge that they faced yesterday, it wasn't
00:43just the volume of data that was going through. It was going through two different generations of
00:48communication. So we have the analog, the older system that's being referred to, connected to a
00:54digital system. And that what we call a patch, which is simply a system of bridging
00:59one system to another, simply couldn't hold. There was too much data going through.
01:04And so as a result, exactly as you said, radar information was inconsistent and there was
01:09interruption when it came, a disruption when it came to air traffic control talking to the airlines.
01:15For the FAA to call a ground stop, a national ground stop, they knew the challenge that that was
01:22going to put on the entire country and the implications. And we're seeing that now with
01:27a good 12 and a half thousand flights being canceled since the start of this. And we look and we're
01:32into
01:32day two, but they had to do it because with aviation, it's always safety first. Very critically
01:38though, Sally, immediately they banished any fears of there being a sense of this being a security breach
01:46or linked to the Microsoft glitch that had taken place yesterday. Because now we need to focus on
01:51the problem and solving it rather than allowing fear to distract us from actually addressing the
01:57fact that one and a half million people are disrupted. The aviation sector is disrupted and
02:04this does not bode well for one of the most competitive nations in the world when it comes to global
02:09connectivity. Yeah. And we have heard talk of how Congress is to blame. Sean Duffy, transport minister,
02:16saying that effectively, because there's never been full agreement between parties, it's not been
02:22fixed and it's taken years and years and years. So how do we fix it now? I get nervous when
02:27I hear
02:28the word blame, admittedly, Sally. The fix is very much going to be a unilateral agnostic commitment
02:34to the 50 billion US dollars that is required to actually change the system and bring it up to
02:41speed in terms of relevance of technology, the ability to meet the demand of a growing travel
02:47and trade market, and to be able to put in the ultimately the systems in place that if there's
02:53any redundancy required, the system is able to switch over to keep things moving without shutting down
03:00the entire nation. The challenge, however, it's not just the price tag on this in terms of funding
03:06the 50 billion dollars. It's almost the time required. This is a monumental infrastructure
03:12change that'll be required and it's going to be required at the same time that existing
03:17infrastructure is operating. So it's going to be a very cautious moving forward, especially as you've
03:23indicated, they're going into the busiest travel season of the entire year in the US with Thanksgiving
03:29coming up as well as Christmas and the end of year. So it's a really proceed with caution,
03:34but keep people moving safely. And Anita, what is your advice to people who are going to be
03:41traveling to or from the US in the next couple of weeks? I mean, should they prepare themselves for
03:46the fact that this crisis might happen again? I think the main thing is really keeping close to
03:51the airlines, keep close to credible information like yourselves and providing exactly what we know to
03:57be true and keep hopeful. Our world needs to connect through people, through products,
04:03through global aviation. No one wants it to stop and we must remain hopeful. So I think it really
04:09is keeping close to the airlines. Aviation, regardless of which airline it is, which airport,
04:15will never compromise safety. So they'll make sure that as they change schedules to accommodate
04:21the recovery. As they work into the end of the year, they're moving as many people as they can
04:27completely safely, recognizing that there will be challenges. But this is where aviation leadership
04:33is some of the best leadership in the world. They are trained for crises. And this year itself
04:38has been a masterclass in their ability to work through them as an ecosystem. Air traffic control,
04:45airlines and airports together to support passengers and trade.
04:49All right. Thanks, Anita Menderata there. She's a special advisor to the UN Secretary General of Tourism.
