• Home
  • AIR
  • 2008
  • Aviation Intelligence Reporter – December 2008-January 2009

Aviation Intelligence Reporter – December 2008-January 2009


Airline industry meeting in a basement? Must be a Summit.
Change: yes? Can we?
African airlines too look at Open Skies
Europe takes big step to approving the Cape Town Convention
CANSO: US air traffic control system a 1954 Cadillac: the fin edge of the wedge?
Dutch set up privatised dispute resolution for passengers
Latin American airports flex their muscles on slots
Muse-ing des Beaux Alitalia


To read the full report please login first.

login here

Do you want to become a member?

click here

Airline industry meeting in a basement? Must be a Summit.

The Aviation Intelligence Reporter has in the past taken some delight in self-styled ‘summits’ that are held in basements, but this is getting beyond satire. In November the French presidency of the European Union convened a summit of the European aviation industry in Bordeaux, and yes! it was held in a basement. The great and the good of the European air transport industry duly assembled. Whereupon, the French presidency tried to ensure that all the delegates understood the implications of global warming by making the room insufferably hot. There was also a distinct shortage of cabin oxygen.

Change: yes? Can we?

Ever keen to grab a boarding pass for a passing bandwagon, the air transport industry is currently working itself into a lather about the brave new dawn that will herald the inauguration of the new president of the United States. Perhaps fortunately for President-Elect Obama, much of that expectation appears to be well below his radar.

African airlines too look at Open Skies

The Reporter has previously discussed the privatisation of the international regulation of air transport. The Agenda for Freedom is one recent example. Now the African Airline Association (AFRAA) is doing something similar for Africa.

Europe takes big step to approving the Cape Town Convention

Little commented upon, but extremely importantly – and isn’t that so often the case – the European Parliament took a very major step towards the global ratification of the Cape Town Convention and Aircraft Protocol this month. The Legal Affairs Committee has approved the text of the Convention, and the Aircraft Protocol. It is now hoped that the Council will endorse that decision in mid-December.

CANSO: US air traffic control system a 1954 Cadillac: the fin edge of the wedge?

TThe Secretary General of CANSO Alexander ter Kuile stood up at the Air Traffic Control Association (ACTA) conference in Washington DC in early November and delivered a strong message. From the outside looking in, he said, the USA’s air traffic control system, and its governance, was as out-dated as a 1959 Cadillac. To rub the point it, he showed a photo of such a vehicle, looking very fine indeed; more fins than a shark, and very sharp.

Dutch set up privatised dispute resolution for passengers

Whilst some European parliamentarians are of the view that there is a vacuum in rights for passengers, realistically, that is a difficult view to sustain. Already there is a passenger charter, various rights and obligations on airlines and to top it off, an EU passenger complaints hotline, a dedicated email address and a toll free number.

Latin American airports flex their muscles on slots

At their annual conference, held in Panama this month, the Airport Council International-Latin America and Caribbean regional division decided that they would fire the first shot in the debate about slot ownership. Who exactly owns the slots? Airports do, they declared in their formal declaration of the meeting.

Muse-ing des Beaux Alitalia

(With huge apologies with W.H. Auden)
About Alitalia they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood

Tags: , , , ,