Aviation Intelligence Reporter – July 2016


The IATA AGM: Schrödinger’s Cat, Anti-Matter and Doesn’t Matter
The ACI-Europe AGM: Greece is the Word
The CANSO AGM: He’s a Traditional ANSP and He’s OK
So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye
To Infinity and Beyond – Space Traffic Control: Ready for Take Off?
Brexit and Biz-Av
Praising SESAR, Not Burying Him


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The IATA AGM: Schrödinger’s Cat, Anti-Matter and Doesn’t Matter

Sometimes, the issue is not who is at a meeting, it is who is not. There were a number of notable exceptions at this year’s IATA AGM, held early June near Dublin. The guest list included everyone you would expect at a meeting of the world’s international airlines, except the CEOs of some of world’s largest international airlines. Michael O’Leary for example. He is even based in Dublin. What about Bjorn Kjos, the CEO of the international airline that is proposing the most radical change to the industry today? His airline is registered in Ireland. Caroline McCall was not there too, to complete the set.

The ACI-Europe AGM: Greece is the Word

For the student of metaphor, the aviation industry AGM season is a happy hunting ground. Europe’s airports went to Greece. Austerity; additional taxes to pay for previous excess; reform and resistance to reform; winners and losers; locked into a unified currency without central controls: warm up the metaphor machine!

The CANSO AGM: He’s a Traditional ANSP and He’s OK

The metaphor machine had to work overtime this year, because the CANSO AGM was held at the same time as the ACI-Europe one. CANSO convened in Vancouver, and immediately went to a mountain top to see grizzly bears, eagles and a lumberjack show that had all the unscripted spontaneity of the Eurovision song contest. Mind you, hats off for thinking ‘Wood chopping as entertainment!’

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye

Brexit is not only an ugly word, as events unfold it is clear that it is also an ugly concept. Nobody seems to know what is going to happen next, or even what is happening now. The remarkable thing seems to be that no-one had any plans for the one outcome that came out. Now we are watching a Brexistential crisis.

To Infinity and Beyond – Space Traffic Control: Ready for Take Off?

Famous art historian of the Renaissance, Ingrid Rowland, noted that ‘in Heaven, the rules of nature do not apply’. Space is as close as we get to Heaven and some of the rules we think normal are optional too. Anniversaries, for example. Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, is this year celebrating the 55th anniversary of Yuri Grigori’s first manned space flight. They are making a splash: a logo; stamps; a website and a movie.

Brexit and Biz-Av

With the die cast seemingly in favour of the UK’s exit from the European Union, the business aviation industry is taking stock of the potential impact in its European market. In the immediate aftermath of the result, the stock price of quoted business aviation groups tumbled along with those of the major airlines.

Praising SESAR, Not Burying Him

The first SESAR work programme is being wound up and SESAR2020 is soon to be upon us. SESAR I, and the Dutch Presidency, decided that a lap of honour was in order. The great and the good of European aviation were called to Amsterdam’s science museum to contemplate the marvellous things that had been achieved in this seminal example of European cooperation. The sub-text was that SESAR2020, and the Deployment Manager, have funds on the table. As Massimo Garbini, the Deployment Manager said, ‘Come on you guys, wake up!’ The UK can have a lie in.