Aviation Intelligence Reporter May 2022
The Airline Association Civil War Gets Frosty
Bail-Outs, Buy-Backs, and Other Forms of Aid: For Whom?
Who Votes for Industrial Muscle? It is Ahead in the Poles
EU-US ATM Efficiency: The Votes Are In
The End of an Era at Eurocontrol
News from Australia’s Airports
The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Camus
Space Policy: We Chose to do it Because it is Hard
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The Airline Association Civil War Gets Frosty
We cross now to our special correspondent covering the increasingly complicated internecine war between airlines and their various trade associations. The reporter, flak-jacket on, map behind him with pictures and arrows and a paragraph on the back explaining the situation, is reporting from a bunker somewhere under an airport terminal in a world under siege. The look is of exhaustion, pain and incredulity. You would need to be hard of heart not to wish him or her a week or so of R and R somewhere – hopefully accessible by train.
Bail-Outs, Buy-Backs and Other Forms of Aid: For Whom?
As the recovery in aviation starts to take shape – European aviation is now operating about 89% of the flights it did at the same time in 2019 – we are starting to see revisions of what happened. Airline CEOs are now suddenly responsible for profitable quarters, profitable half years. It is enough to make taxpayers weep. There will never be an audit of the money thrown at the airlines and how it was spent, but there should be.
Who Votes for Industrial Muscle? It is Ahead in the Poles
Poland is having a busy time. Not content to undermine European values and the rule of law, it is also the staging post for European cooperation and collaboration when it comes to funnelling help to Ukraine, as well as operating as the first staging post for funnelling refugees away from the same war. Is it any wonder that its role in bolstering the cause of union-power and wilting in the face of industrial muscle has so far been overlooked by anyone not flying to Warsaw?
EU-US ATM Efficiency: The Votes Are In
One thing that we are never short of in aviation is data. But, as Elliot noted in The Rock, ‘Where is the wisdom we lost with knowledge; where is the knowledge we lost with information?’ Were he alive today, he would surely have gone on to ask, ‘where is the information we lost with data?’ All that data, no wisdom. What that means is that it is possible to cite data as you see fit, and to bring it to conclusions that fit your narrative. Perhaps we should keep stats about how often that happens.
The End of an Era at Eurocontrol
As the Aviation Intelligence Reporter is distributed, the deadline for the nomination of a new Director-General of Eurocontrol passes. By the start of the new year, Eurocontrol will have a new DG. Expect more than a few festivities to mark the end of the Eamonn Brennan era, but there can be no doubt that he has made a difference. If the test is whether the organisation is better now than when he found it, there can be little doubt that he has been a success. Eurocontrol is now clearly at the centre of European aviation, not just European ATM.
News from Australia’s Airports
You may recall that last month we discussed the decision of a judge of the Western Australian Supreme Court on the dispute between Perth Airport and Qantas. The dispute centred on the charges agreed between the airport and the airline. Qantas’ position included references to Senegalese pirates. The result was a stake through the heart of the Australian light-touch regulatory framework for airport charges. Indeed, his honour rolled his gown up and plunged his hands deep into the nitty-gritty of costings and pricing before redefining what the correct charges should be. That is completely against the spirit of the Australian system.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Camus
A new client
After my last client, I knew that I needed a rest, some time to recover. Working into, and working out of, the existential core of IATA was going to take some getting over. The winter was moving in, so I decamped to the Maghreb. I set up an office in Oran. After some decorating work by me, I managed to convince myself that the office was now seedy enough to allow me to hang up my shingle, in the very unlikely chance of work. ‘John-Paul Sartre, Existential Detective’ it said. I put it in an obscure corner, hoping that I could deduct some tax, but not tax my brain too much trying to make sense of things. It would be a relief to not be asked to focus for a while.
Space Policy: We Chose to do it Because it is Hard
The act of going to space has always had a political component. The origins of rocketry are couched in three disparate scientists and mathematicians, Konstantin Tsilkovsky of pre-Soviet Russia, Hermann Oberth of Germany, and Robert Goddard of the US. Each postulated and drafted the earliest rocketry mathematics. Notably, before WWII, Oberth’s assistant was a young Wernher von Braun. For each scientist, their theorems were largely dismissed when they were first presented.
Tags: Airlines, ATM, Aviation Industry, Business Aviation, Competition, Drones and UAVs, Environment, Tourism