Aviation Intelligence Reporter
March 2025
Is the FAA Facing an Unscheduled Rapid Disassembly Event?
Is Lufthansa JD Vance in Disguise?
Reality Bites for Destination 2050
The green wars are over! We need a truce. And more subsidies…
Will Reg 261 Delay Multi-Modal Travel?
Putting Your Finger on the Benefits of ANSPs Going Digital
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Is the FAA Facing an Unscheduled Rapid Disassembly Event?
It is impossible to look at what is going on inside the US government at the moment with anything other than dumbstruck amazement. Slack-jawed disbelief is also permitted. In the case of the FAA the use of the word ‘dangerous’ is also justified. That is not to fear-mong, but simply to note that for the part of the industry most noted for cautious progress, in an industry famous for prioritising safety, the rapid changes are causing concern. Real concern. The risk is that, like Will E Coyote, the FAA will career over a cliff, carry on, legs madly going for some time, only to then look down, plunge, crack up and disintegrate into a pile of rubble. To be fair to Will E Coyote, he always puts himself together again and finds more equipment from ACME to continue his quest. What might ACME have in store for the FAA? On this new roadmap, X marks the spot.
Is Lufthansa JD Vance in Disguise?
If an alien came amongst us and asked us how to behave to fit in, what would we say? What is the temper of the time? Where is the power, where is the passion? Sadly, we are proving, again, Yeats’ observation that the best lack all conviction, whilst the worst are full of passionate intensity. In a trope as old as time, the worst are blaming somebody else, anybody else really, for the problems. We have seen it before – the scapegoating, the untruths, the control of the message. We are seeing it again. In the US, but not only there. It is all around us.
Reality Bites for Destination 2050
The halcyon days of wine and regulation may be over, but to be fair to the Commission, it is not just dropping regulation like it is a hot potato. The Commission is trying to find a dignified way to justify dismantling much of the Aviation Green Deal before taking it outside and putting it down. The trick to doing that is to dismantle it behind the scenes, but at the front keep going with the useful myth that the sector remains well set on a sustainable path, to which we are all committed.
The green wars are over! We need a truce. And more subsidies…
Bill Hemmings, Brussels-based aviation and shipping consultant
As the Aviation Intelligence Reporter noted last month, this year we will spurn regulation and set sail for growth. In turnover of course – and sectoral subsidies for sure. Even without all the changed politics in member states and Brussels, the Aviation Green Deal is already showing clear signs of serious ill-health. Airbus’ disowning hydrogen powered aircraft can hardly be a surprise – any appreciable impact on ‘net zero’ in 2050 emissions was always a huge stretch. At least all that work on airport infrastructure can now be forgotten. Not so all those regulatory lost opportunities to act now.
Will Reg 261 Delay Multi-Modal Travel?
When you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail. When you are one of the growing cohort taking on passenger compensation claims against the airlines pursuant to good old Regulation 261, anything that looks like it might limit your income is a nail. It is fair to say that the airlines have very little time for this new breed of ambulance chasers (although, the ambulance chasers in this context are the big law firms and insurers that litigate serious claims, actually involving ambulances). This brigade is the courtesy- water-and-sandwich-trolley chasers. They love a good delay, because passengers on a flight delayed for more than three hours are entitled to compensation; their lawyers, a commission. Delays of five hours trigger the right to a refund (plus commission).
Putting Your Finger on the Benefits of ANSPs Going Digital
The future for Europe’s ANSPs is digital, according to the new ATM Masterplan. Going digital allows for trajectory-based operations, better air-ground and ground-ground communication, higher levels of automation between the flight deck and the ground, human–machine teaming and dynamic airspace management. According to the Masterplan, ‘Added to these levers is a move to a data-driven and cloud-based service-oriented architecture delivery model. This new approach, involving a shift of focus from assets to services, will enable the quicker deployment of new features, while improving the interoperability of operations, airspace and technology across air navigation service providers and other stakeholders’.