Aviation Intelligence Reporter – September 2008


CEOs and the Christian Virtues
Broken airport operator gets broken up
CRS Regulations – watch the screen
Airlines look at the Olympics for Inspiration: Faster, Higher, Stronger


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CEOs and the Christian Virtues

The recent tragedies in both Madrid and Bishkek have again seen calls for the resignation of the CEO of the airline. At first blush, that might seem harsh. However, those calls must be ringing some bells of recognition for the Swiss air traffic control organization skyguide’s General Counsel Francis Schubert. Not that it will be giving him any comfort.

Broken airport operator gets broken up

It is hard, perhaps beyond human limits, to feel too much sympathy for BAA after the Competition Commission of the UK announced this week that it was inclined to order the break-up of the UK airport operator. Perhaps the only thing harder might be finding anyone that has used a UK airport in the last few years that has any feelings at all apart from anger and frustration.

CRS Regulations – watch the screen

It has been interesting to note that the airlines (including the big, heavy hitting ones) have been remarkably silent in the environment debate. They have left all the heavy work to their industry associations. Maybe why is starting to come out – the big European airlines had other fish to fry and did not want to waste their political capital on a hard fight that was always going to be an uphill one. Instead, it is now clear what they were actually working on: the new CRS Regulation.

Airlines look at the Olympics for Inspiration: Faster, Higher, Stronger

If not the Olympic ideal then perhaps Darwin anyway – there is a growing realisation that if only the fittest survive, now is the time to get fit. We are watching another round of airline closures and bankruptcy, and bankers are being appointed for all sorts of creative propositions – Virgin is looking at bmi, according to the press; Austrian is on the block and Alitalia is, well, Alitalia is bankrupt (officially as opposed to in practice) and proving that it is an ill wind that blows no good, brought about long needed reform to the Italian bankruptcy rules so that it can be allowed to phoenix like rise again; BA is going through the regulatory procedures to join with AA and to merge with Iberia and rumours abound about almost every other airline one can think of. Good work for advisors and lawyers – but there continues to be a major hurdle: the ownership and control rules. As ever in aviation, regulatory risk is the deal breaker. All the fancy bankers in the world will still need to talk with the regulatory and aero-political experts to get to the bottom of the riddle.