It is increasingly clear that regulation is last year’s God. This year, we are spurning regulation and setting sail for growth. Since the dawn of the time of the new Commission – December last year – we have been expected to worship at the shrine of Growth. We are told by the high priestess herself, President Von der Leyen, that the one true path to Growth leads via Competitiveness. Grab your Compass. But what clutters and obscures the true path to Competitiveness? Regulation. Regulation is the new beige. We hate Regulation. We have always been at war with Regulation. This must be true, because it is on the front cover of the Economist. He will no doubt hate to know this, but the new US president is not the motivating force behind the theme of this year, although in a terrible choice of words the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the UK, Rachel Reeves, noted that growth ‘trumps other things’. That includes all those pesky regulations that get in the way. As annoying as this fact will be to both the Chancellor and the President, it is Europe that leads the way in this push to push aside pesky regulations. Although in true European style, we have been much more circumspect in noting that is what we are doing. Former Italian PMs know no other way.
Is the Union’s ASA Competence Exclusive? Asking for a Friend
Something interesting is afoot in Brussels when the diplomats start saying ‘this means war’. That is not diplomatic talk. Members of the Council’s Committee of Permanent Representatives – Coreper, made up of heads of mission – are talking about the nuclear option, getting their prime minister or president to write to President Von der Leyen to complain. Already. To be considering that at a first meeting to discuss an issue being tabled means that we are talking about something really, really, interesting. Yet aside from one mention in Politico, there has been no public traction on this. Curious. Yes, it verges on appearing to be an arcane question, but the practical implications are huge, and not just for policy wonks. Is nobody thinking of the airlines’ lobbyists?
Let’s Talk About Slots (Again), Baby
If there was no slot system, we would invent one. But would it look like this one? The slot regime was created by the incumbent airlines, when that was the only sort of airline, in the 1970s. IATA insists on ‘worldwide’, but in fact most of the world does not strictly adhere to its slot rules. The industry struggles on with a patchwork of procedures. It is not used in Brazil, China, India, the US, or (with one exception) Canada. Toronto Island Airport uses the Worldwide Airport Slot Guidelines, somehow entrenching the incumbent, Porter, rather than require it to face competition. There might be a metaphor there.
Passenger Rights; Passenger Wrongs
As we discussed last month, passenger rights are back on the agenda. If sustainability is being downplayed, watch passenger rights become the avenue where social issues are highlighted. These regulations are not going away. At the end of last year, the Commission, the Parliament and the Council were all set homework, to work out how to make passengers rights work in multimodal journeys. But there are still examples on the battlefield that is passenger rights, and wrongs, in aviation, that light the way to more indecision. It was a busy festive season, so mind your step and walk this way.
Not Drinking to Aviation, the Irish Way
With apologies to James Joyce (and Drew Forsythe)
As told to James Joyce, by Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary, when arguing that passengers should be limited to two only drinks at airports prior to boarding.
Still More Tourists? Still Move Overtourism
The travel industry has rebounded so dramatically post-pandemic that any time now, we will have guided tours to observe overtourism in its natural habitat, complete with audio commentary about disgruntled locals and stampeding visitors clutching selfie sticks. Whilst international tourism’s recovery has brought economic relief to many destinations, it has also reignited fierce debate on overcrowding, environmental damage, and the sustainability of Europe’s most beloved landmarks. Meanwhile, policymakers are scrambling to strike a delicate balance between welcoming tourists and ensuring that residents don’t start putting up “CLOSED” signs on entire neighbourhoods.
More Information About Data in Aviation and Tourism
The European travel industry is navigating a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape as new data laws and security policies impose stricter requirements on businesses and travellers. Positioned as they are to enhance border security, prevent fraud, and improve data transparency, it is hard to see them being thrown on the bonfire of the regulation in the name of Competitiveness. They introduce significant compliance burdens and potential disruptions. As Europe expands data collection mandates, so too do the operational challenges. From the Advance Passenger Information regulations to national laws like Spain’s tourist registration policy, businesses are scrambling to adapt to stricter compliance measures while balancing data privacy concerns.
Free Route Airspace. Not as Free as You Think
Free route airspace was introduced in Europe to give airlines better flight routing opportunities rather sticking to the cumbersome fixed route structure. Predictions of savings of up to 2% of flight distances were waved about. FRA was a revolution to the ATM sector, the best thing since RVSM. Over the last 10 years, the old, fixed route structure has been steadily dismantled, and waypoints deleted with abandon. But not everything seems to be working as intended.
If you attended the Dubai Airshow in mid-November, the difference between what is happening in aviation in Europe and in the rest of the world – the middle East in particular – could not have been clearer. It was a lesson in contrasts. It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Not only was it a balmy 32 degrees in Dubai and approaching zero degrees with a light dusting of snow in most of Europe, the prevailing mood around the halls, around the chalets and on the runway was also as hot-versus-cold as the thermometer.
At Le Bourget this year, the mood was one of waiting and watching. Everybody is watching everybody else to see what might happen next. Everyone wants to know what the next form of propulsion will be, what the implications of that are for the airframe and the airport, and what the market will do. Europe is also watching the world go past it in their new eVTOL devices. There is a lot of talk, but European AAM is quietly checking out and heading to the places with money and favourable regulations.
Carbon Leakage in the Middle East
Unless you have been living under a rock for the last decade or so, you will know that the European legacy carriers cry themselves to sleep at night by thinking about ‘carbon leakage’. This is when passengers choose to fly via a hub just outside Europe (in the case of Istanbul) or seven or so hours outside Europe (in the case of the Gulf carriers) and build in the inconvenience of a transfer through enormous airports, simply to avoid paying for the costs imposed on Europe’s carriers by their sustainability obligations when offering a direct flight. Once upon a time, direct flights were able to demand a premium over transfer flights, but clearly that was before the joy of denying the climate change issues was factored in. It is much more manly to fly for longer, and do a transfer, if it means you can show that you do not care about carbon emissions. The logic is precarious, to say the least, and in many cases the solutions suggested, including a carbon border adjustment mechanism, seem complex and ineffectual. Still, everyone gets to have a good old moan, so it not a complete waste of time.
Droneboat Diplomacy
Gunboat diplomacy was the way the rich and powerful asserted their riches and power over the poor. It was a clean and efficient way to remind the world of who was who and what was what. It was also a way to ensure and solidify Imperial power. Gunboat diplomacy was very much a one-way street. There was not much the recipient of the gunboat’s presence could do to resist it. Part of the aim was the propaganda win, after all. And it put the natives in their place, or, at least, reminded them of their place. Trade by gunpoint. Chicago marks the transition from Empire to State for aviation.
We live in much more untidy times. However, there has recently been a rise in the perceived need of nation states to reassert their national power, national identity and national sovereignty. That should warm the hearts of the draughtsmen of the Chicago Convention. But we also live in a time of hybrid, asymmetric warfare. The means to assert national identity, or the means to repulse the national posturing of larger threatening states, is no longer determined by a simple the-mightier-are-righter calculation. Guerilla warfare makes the traditional means of asserting military might seem flat-footed and maladroit. Five €100 drones coming across the threshold of an airport can see five €100,000,000 jets being scrambled. That is a win for the intruders. It also sees immediate calls for strengthening national borders and reasserting national sovereignty. That too would warm the cockles of the Chicago draughtmen’s hearts.
From the Desk of John-Paul Sartre
Big Cargo Drones: Small Revolution
Philip Butterworth Hayes, Editor, Unmanned Aviation
Anybody who has been in this business for more than a few years will have developed a list of aviation business ideas which they know will one day take the industry by storm but have not yet taken hold. Low cost, long-haul airlines. The all-electric airport. Personal jets. Regional air taxis. Unducted fans. Hydrogen power. Many of these have been tried but for whatever reason the business case has not quite been there. Or not there yet, as their boosters will insist.
But in one corner of the industry the stars are starting to align for a concept which has been in the waiting room of the aviation industry for at least a decade – the large cargo drone. Three things are needed for real disruption in this industry: quantifiable market demand, money and regulatory approval.
Ryanair’s Grand Project
Never underestimate how keen, how determined, Ryanair is to overfly France during ATCO strikes. All the usual means of resolving the issue: lobbying the Commission directly; lobbying via the A4E; a petition of nearly three million signatures; public naming and shaming? Nada. The time for drastic action is now.
There are two suggestions on the drawing board. Both are breathtaking in their scope, their audacity, their creativity. The first one was made public by CEO Michael O’Leary in the UK newspaper the Telegraph, so it was not seen by many. Most missed what will be a glorious development. Like the spider which spins a web across the bottom of a slippery dip in a children’s playground, if they can pull this off, they will eat like kings. The only way to sort out the problem of striking French controllers and the subsequent ban on overflights, according to O’Leary, is to send in a gunboat! What a wonderful suggestion! Who knew O’Leary had pretentions to imperial overreach?
Using AI to Digitise the Most Analogue of Industries
The tourism sector stands, as it so often seems to do, at an inflection point. All pervasive AI – Wikipedia on steroids – has shouldered its way into nearly every aspect of our lives. Travel is no exception. Recent industry studies and reports reveal a convergence around three broad trends: rapid institutional adoption; cautious and burgeoning consumer acceptance; and a shift toward deeply personalised, autonomous ‘agentic’ systems.
AI adoption within the tourism industry is shifting from experimentation to structured implementation. According to the 2025 Canary Technologies hospitality survey, 73% of hoteliers now believe AI will have a ‘significant or transformative’ impact on the sector, and 61% report that AI is either already affecting operations or will do so in the coming year. This confidence, whether foolhardy or not, is reflected in updated resource allocation: 77% of hospitality organisations plan to dedicate between 5% and 50% of their IT budgets to AI, signalling a seismic shift from theoretical interest to investment strategy. The primary applications emerging in hotels include AI-powered guest messaging, multilingual virtual assistants, automated check-in and check-out systems, and tools for revenue optimisation and demand forecasting. Simply put, ‘fewer employees, more money’.
Lean Your Seat Back in Anger With apologies to Oasis
This year we have seen a number of revivals. The second most surprising was Oasis, mounting a comeback tour that has made millions for the band. The most surprising is that of the premium classes in aircraft, making millions for the airlines.
Slip inside the eye of your mind
Don’t you know you might find
A better place to play
You said that you’d never been
But all the other cabins you’ve seen
Will slowly fade away
So start a revolution from your flatbed
Cos the legroom you had, it went to your head
Step into First, summertime’s in bloom
Stand up beside the caviar
Take that look off your angry avatar
You ain’t ever gonna burn your heart out
So Economy can wait, never again, it’s too late as we’re walking on by
Your soul starts to fly, ‘Lean your seat back in anger,’ I heard you say
Take me to the place where you go
Where nobody knows if it’s night or day
Please don’t put your
life in the hands Of a Ryanair crew
Who’ll throw it all away
So start a revolution from your flatbed
‘Cos the legroom you had, it went to your head
Step into First, summertime’s in bloom
Enjoy the lounge, the extra leg room
Zone 1 Priority kills the gloom
You ain’t ever gonna burn your heart outSo Economy can wait, never again, it’s too late as we’re walking on by
Your soul starts to fly,‘Lean your seat back in anger,’ I heard you say
So Economy can wait, never again, it’s too late as we’re walking on by
Your soul starts to fly, ‘Lean your seat back in anger,’ I heard you say
So Economy can wait, never again, it’s too late as we’re walking on by
Your soul starts to fly, ‘Lean your seat back in anger,’ I heard you say
I heard you say, ‘at least not today.’
