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.
Is the world imitating aviation, or is aviation imitating the world? We, the aviation industry, struggle to understand that question – the world follows us! Mostly out of envy. Or out of that love of big things that make a lot of noise and go fast. What is that called? Oh yes: futurism. That was the future once, at least in the last mid-century Europe.
If aviation leads the world, it is responsible for the end of the post war peace settlement, the defenestration of the UN, the end of NATO. We have let the bureaucrats decide what should happen to innovation. How innovation is to be marshalled and controlled. The invasion of Ukraine, the closing of the Strait of Hormuz, is on us. Is Star foretelling the fate of NATO? Is OneWorld? Is the other one, the one centring on Air France? Even more distressingly, IATA no longer has an interest in working on behalf of the industry at large. Cyber attacks on airports? Not IATA’s concern. Totally invisible. Not a word from IATA. The alliances may have been NATO, but IATA is the UN. An industry that once worked as one is Balkanising.
The New Aviation Strategy: Same Old Airline Demands
The policeman’s lot, Gilbert and Sullivan tell us, is not a happy one. But at least they are in the fresh air, resolving issues as they arise. It is much harder for the regulators. Trapped in an office, working at the theoretical level, trying to please, or at least appease, as many as possible. All they can produce is a strategy, one with as much buy-in as possible. Spare a thought for the good folk at DG MOVE, currently updating Europe’s aviation strategy. Their unhappy lot is to try to find a way to balance the demands of the entire spectrum of stakeholders, all of whom assume that their particular concerns are a priority. The task is to balance the competing interests of the various stakeholders. We wish them well.
How Advanced Can AAM Be if ICAO Wants In?
Bad news for the AAM industry. ICAO is on your case. To be fair, ICAO has been marking out a role in the drone, AAM, eVTOL, or RPAS industry for a long time. ICAO would argue they have been on the case since 1944 – and indeed before that, because Article 8, which talks about cross border flights by remotely piloted air systems, is a carry over from the 1928 protocol to the 1919 Paris Convention. See how forward looking the Chicago Convention is, Team ICAO proudly purr. Talk about fit for purpose… Someone should tell them that the reference is to ‘flying torpedos’. Unmanned propeller aircraft fired from a launcher. There were drones in use in WWII. They were used to provide target practice for aspiring gunners. Fun fact, the first professional photo of Marilyn Monroe was taken when she worked in a factory making them as part of the war effort.
Pigs in Space: What Is Going On Around the Moon?
Were you one of the millions of people fascinated by NASA’s recent jaunt to the dark side of the moon? It glued attention to a live broadcast in ways we thought lost forever. What was achieved? The new frontier was to go behind the Moon, a place we cannot look at even when there. On the military side, which is nothing to do with NASA, there is a lot going on. For NASA, Artemis is a reminder to those keen to colonise space that it still exists. NASA has never been afraid of the private sector. JFK’s Moonshot gave huge amounts of money to various American companies with clear boundaries but no specifications. One company was to get the entire thing airborne, one was to control its flight, another to get the men back to earth. The Eagle landing module in the Smithsonian in Washington DC, proudly bears the word ‘Grumman’ for all visitors to see. That showed Russia.
John-Paul Sartre and the Case of the Missing Word – Chapter 3
My marching orders were as clear as they were going to be. My job was to find out why, and how, a word that meant one thing for a very long time, was suddenly hijacked and made to mean something else. Wait, ‘hijacked’. I realised that this talking aviation game was a lot of fun. My new client had suggested I start with the A4E. No, I could not work out what the number was for, either. They have more than four members. And airlines for Europe? I thought they were the airlines of Europe. Are they the only airlines for Europe? Is that Europe’s lot? Don’t most of them fly into Europe too? What about Airlines from Europe? Words, eh? And, in this case, numbers…
Tracing the End of Baggage Tracking
Until the invention of smart tags, the airlines had a world-beating ability to track your baggage. To know where it was when in those five in 1,000 moments when the interline (or indeed the on-line) system failed. Like smart tags, it could locate your lost bag and, generally, unlike a smart tag, so what had to be done to get it back to you without too much fuss. They were the good old days. The industry pulled together using standards, lots of standards, to make the system work. Comms standards, standards for the baggage tagging, standards for the exchanges between the various airlines and various airline stations involved. It worked on telex, but the fact is, it worked. IATA managed those standards, using expertise the industry depended on.
The La Marseillaise for Today’s French Travellers
As mentioned above, Ben Smith, CEO of Air France, is clear how he sees the world’s aviation system. States negotiate rights to operate, for their citizens. To be fair to Ben, that is pretty much correct, or at least, it was thought to be correct until about 1995 and the advent of liberalisation and such flash-in-the-pan concepts like open skies and liberalisation. Those are not French concepts, as a general comment. No, for Smith, the only loyal French person is an Air France passenger.