Headlines for Aviation Intelligence Reporter April 2025
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That Noise? The Starting Gun on eVTOL Aviation. European airline leaders spent March gearing up for their annual A4E summit (see below) but frankly that was a sideshow. The real news was happening in China. In Beijing, EHang received formal air worthiness certification from the CAAC for its EH216-S, paving the way for commercial operations. This marks the official start of the advanced air mobility industry. Furthermore, two air operator certificates were also agreed, to EHang Holdings Limited in South China’s Guangdong Province, and to Hefei Heyi Aviation Co, a new airline, in East China’s Anhui Province. These AOCs are for totally autonomous, commercial, passenger, operations.
The A4E CEO Summit: Sustainability vs Competitiveness? No Contest
Far away from developments in China, the great and the good of Europe’s airlines gathered in Brussels, at ground level, for a summit. Yes, the Airlines Four Europe’s annual CEO Summit, which this year was much less predictable than normal, was convened in late March. For a start, the new Commissioner, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, was there. This is a major advance on the past. He also gave a good speech, noting the concerns of the airlines without backing down on the fundamentals, such as the need for sustainability and open markets. That put the airlines in something of a bind. They were delighted with the fact that Tzitzikostas was there (the CEOs also had a private meeting with him) but did not see eye to eye on some of the details. But he did assure them that the airlines have a place ‘on the table’.
Human Intelligence versus Artificial Intelligence
From the spinning jenny to the computer, from the invention of the motorised plough to television, innovation has always been accompanied by fears that it will destroy all known employment and Life As We Know It. That is also the case for AI, or artificial intelligence, as it would be known if we could still pay attention long enough to read the full name on our phones as we doomscroll away. Sigh.
The Case of the Disappearing SAF: John-Paul Sartre Investigates
It was late, again. It always seems to be late these days. How did it get so late I asked myself. Then I asked the glass of cheap whisky I was drinking. That was when I realised that I had my watch on upside down. It was early, again. It always seems to be early these days. How did it get so early I asked myself. I would have asked the glass, but the whisky seemed to have evaporated. Being the world’s first existential private eye is not an easy task. John-Paul Sartre, at your service. But cheap whisky, you ask? Yes, cheap whisky. After losing my retainer with IATA for pointing out the truth once too often, things were hard. ‘Solutions that were insufficiently existential’ was the official explanation. Answers too near the truth in fact. I had been reduced to bits of bit work. Tracking down the wrong Camus, finding Schrodinger’s cat – in the tree, not in the tree; that sort of thing. I had few expectations when there was a knock on the door.
On Your Left, Tourism Policy. On Your Right, More Tourism Policy
Tourism policy (appropriately) is like buses. You wait ages and then lots show up, all at once. You did not have to be at the A4E Summit to know that Reg 261 is back on the agenda. But soon, you are going to be need a road map to navigate your way around the crossroads of interlinked regulatory changes brought on by Regulation 261, multi-modal travel’s technological ambitions, and the revision of the Package Travel Directive.