Aviation Intelligence Reporter – October 2015


The Single European Sky: Magical Thinking, or Magic Potion?
Drones and the Need for Speed
ANSP Ownership: Time for a Full Inquiry
Environment Summit Time Again: No Amount of Hot Air Will Hide Hot Seat
The Online Travel Agency Race for Biz-Av Begins in Earnest
DG Search Watch


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The Single European Sky: Magical Thinking, or Magic Potion?

The year is 2015. It’s been over a decade since the first SES package was adopted by that force for a single, integrated European empire, the European parliament. The Commission proposed the legislation, and to be fair to them, they have relentlessly pursued the target ever since. You may choose to argue that they have not always been adept in their pursuit, but you cannot doubt their good intentions. Loyal soldiers, the Commission troops have marched out to edges of the Empire to make the skies single and the world safe for civil aviation.

Drones and the Need for Speed

Despite flying at close to the speed of sound, and sometimes even faster, things happen very slowly in aviation. That is generally a good thing. Changes are introduced into our procedures and processes very slowly, after being very sure that safety is not only not compromised, but if anything, enhanced. The overwhelming majority of drones, on the other hand, fly low and slow. But there is a need for speed in how we address their unique challenges.

ANSP Ownership: Time for a Full Inquiry

Students of blood sports might enjoy watching the appearances of Australia’s ANSP, Airservices Australia, in front of representatives of its owner, the Australian government. In a sadistic biannual ritual, management is hauled up to an airless, charmless and soulless Senate Committee room to be grilled by the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee, a Senate Standing Committee currently chaired by a man with a private pilot’s licence and therefore Knows Everything About Aviation.

Environment Summit Time Again: No Amount of Hot Air Will Hide Hot Seat

You may have noticed a change in tone recently in conversations about climate change. As the Paris Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP21) hooves into view, there is considerable talking happening. Tough talking. The talkers want you to think it tough, anyway. No less so at the Aviation Environment Summit, held underground, in Geneva, at the end of September. It even produced a tough talking letter in the Financial Times.

The Online Travel Agency Race for Biz-Av Begins in Earnest

Business aviation has been peculiarly immune to the warp-speed development of the rest of the travel business. Not when it comes to products, where even the smallest private jet has avionics to match the most sophisticated commercial airliner. But in terms of the industry´s ability to market and sell its inventory to would-be passengers, that is, the charter market, it´s still largely languishing in the last century.

DG Search Watch

The mayor of Naples once noted that in his city, traffic lights were a suggestion, not a dictate. Traditionally, IATA’s DGs have taken their contract of service in the same way. Completely against type, Tony Tyler, the current IATA DG, has already announced that he will stand down at the end of his current term. He will be the first IATA DG ever that has left of his own accord and at his own timing.