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The Aviation Intelligence Reporter
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Aviation Intelligence Reporter February 2025
- Set Sail for Growth
- Is the Union’s ASA Competence Exclusive? Asking for a Friend
- Let’s Talk About Slots (Again), Baby
- Passenger Rights; Passenger Wrongs
- Not Drinking to Aviation, the Irish Way
- Still More Tourists? Still Move Overtourism
- More Information About Data in Aviation and Tourism
- Free Route Airspace. Not as Free as You Think
Friends,
Away we go again. Sometimes, January can be a little quiet, with people returning from their break and so on. Not this year. We have come out of the blocks declaring war on regulations – a proposal that in the US did not survive a terrible disaster – but also on regulation per se. The new goal is Competitiveness. Soon, the Commission will be drafting a regulation that notes this. A focus on being globally competitive is a very worthy goal, but expect the airlines to each lobby for what best suits their own requirements.
Less expected was the Commission itself getting into the lobbying game. And it is playing a blinder. It has asked the ECJ for an opinion on whether the EU has sole competency over negotiating air service agreements (as it does most all else of aviation in Europe) or does this remain a mixed competency issue. The ramifications are huge. If the EU has sole competency, it can negotiate and agree with third countries to its heart’s content, and what is more, the individual states will not be able to maintain their own negotiations – and that would apply to both the member states and third countries that like to divide and conquer. Looking at you, India, China, Japan…
We also look at the tensions simmering in the slot area, again; at what is going on with passenger rights; we look at overtourism; and free route airspace, which needs some urgent updating to be as helpful as it can be.
Finally, in honour of the most un-Irish thing most of us can think of, Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary wanting to restrict passengers to two drinks at the airport before boarding, we needed to do something special. Only someone like James Joyce can possibly comment on such a move, so we have asked him to do so. Ed Sims, of this parish, deserves credit for some very helpful suggestions too – proving that his First at Oxford on Joyce’s Ulysses was not wasted after all!
As ever, we welcome your feedback,
Regards
Andrew
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