Aviation Intelligence Reporter – December 2017
Digitisation: Back to the Future
In Helsinki, the (Drone) Cold War Heats Up
The Revision of Regulation 868: A Competition to See Whose Ox is Gored
Making Europe’s Airspace More Efficient: L’Eléphant dans le Chambre
Airport Charges Redux, Again
A Consultant’s Lot Is Not A Happy One
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Digitisation: Back to the Future
Aviation has a new rule: if you want your white paper or presentation to be considered important, you must mention digitisation. Digitisation is so much more than the new black. It is not just a mere fashion statement. Digitisation is the new Connectivity. You cannot put it higher than that. Nothing meaningful now fails to mention digitalisation. Just last month, you had to mention connectivity. Now, who cares? It is not that you connect, it is that your connection is digital. Get with the programme.
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In Helsinki, the (Drone) Cold War Heats Up
The European drone industry gathered late November in Helsinki for the Helsinki High Level Conference on Drones. This is the third such Commission and EASA organised meeting, and thus, inevitably, the third formal Declaration emerged at its end. It could have emerged at the start, but that would have spoiled the fun. Whether or not we need a further meeting next year, one is being arranged, in Amsterdam. Just as the old Frost Report joke goes ‘Someone broke into the Kremlin last night and stole next year’s election results,’ someone could break into DG MOVE and make off with the Amsterdam Declaration any time after about year’s end. People in suits and ties now outnumber the gamers at these events. That is how seriously drones are being taken. Some of the suits tried to look funky by not wearing a tie, but they were fooling no-one.
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The Revision of Regulation 868: A Competition to See Whose Ox is Gored
Is there a heart that does not beat quicker at the thought of Regulation (EC) 868/2004? It is a regulation that anyone screaming for ‘smarter regulation’ should take down from the dusty shelf on which it sits and contemplate. The smarter regulation school of thought, you may recall, maintains that aviation is so special that the usual rules do not apply to it; special, smarter rules and regulations are needed to address the aviation industry’s special situation. Regulation 868, for example, outlaws predatory pricing. It has never been used. Still, once more unto the breach, scream the legacy airlines, once more! Legacy carriers are not easily deterred. These are different days, after all.
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Making Europe’s Airspace More Efficient: L’Eléphant dans le Chambre
For some, digitisation is the way of the future; the way of data and AI and processing new thoughts more quickly: the way forward. It is competition from Google; it is open standards; it is the Brave New World. For the controllers – or their unions at least – their view of digitisation is more earthy and closer to home: two fingers, V-shaped, rapidly moving upwards. Read their digits: no new anything at all. The controllers are not worried about the future; they are worried about their safety. They are under attack.
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Airport Charges Redux, Again
The Commission has released an inception impact assessment report on airport charges, a necessary step for a consultation on the Airport Charges Directive. The airlines and the airports are locked in an increasingly bitter dispute. There is a PhD in psychiatry waiting to be written about the visceral need the airline industry has for more and still further regulation, and what deep underlying issues might motivate that – to uncover the aviation industry’s Oedipal issues one needs to look no further than Chicago circa 1944 – whilst pretending we care about market forces and competition. What, on the other hand, competition lawyers and regulatory experts will note is not the innate, immature demand for further regulation, but that the arguments simply miss the point.
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A Consultant’s Lot Is Not A Happy One
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Start Planning Now For 2018
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