Aviation Intelligence Reporter – February 2018
The Unfair Airport State Aid for Airlines Competition Debate
The Stately Procession of a State Aid Investigation
Create Your Own Own-Goal Kicking Monster: A Cut-Out-And-Keep Guide
Studies About Airport Charges Come Charging Out of the Blocks
Sustaining Sustainable Tourism Drones: Deconflicting Competitive UTM
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The Unfair Airport State Aid for Airlines Competition Debate
At first blush, it would seem that the only topics in play in Europe at the moment are reforms to the airport charges rules and a replacement for the never-used Regulation 868/2004 on airline competition. ‘Fair competition’ as the airlines would like you to think of it, so that they can frame the debate. It would be a different debate if it was generally known as ‘the debate on economic imperialism’. You might think airport charges and competition are two separate topics. In fact, they are part of a holistic, existential, web.
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The Stately Procession of a State Aid Investigation
State aid is a vexing topic. We hate it, except when it is our state, aiding us. We hate it if it goes to airports, unless we fly to those airports. We hate it when it means we compete against state-owned airlines, unless we are a state-owned airline. We hate it when it goes to the hub airport of a competitor, unless… Actually, no, there is no counterfactual to that one. That one we just hate. However, it is comforting, if we are a European airline, to know that if one can show even a cent of aid going to our competitors, we can scream ‘market distortion!’ sit back and relax. DG MOVE will fix it.
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Create Your Own Own-Goal Kicking Monster: A Cut-Out-And-Keep Guide
January 2018 was the bicentenary of the publication of Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus, written by Mary Shelley. So hats off to the American airline industry for marking this special occasion by building their own monster, just like Dr Victor Frankenstein did all those years ago. Who knew that the A4A was into literary tributes? In the case of Dr Frankenstein the galvanising force was lightning. For the US carriers, it is something much more powerful than that – it is the visceral hatred they have for carriers from the Gulf. Karl Marx saw Frankenstein as a metaphor for the class struggle – well he would, wouldn’t he – and so do the US carriers. Except in their case, it is all about first class, business class and economy and the struggles they have to fill them with paying passengers exposed to any other alternative.
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Studies About Airport Charges Come Charging Out of the Blocks
As flagged in its 2015 Aviation Strategy, the Commission is again reviewing the Airport Charges Directive, 2009/12/EC. Stakeholders had questioned the suitability of the Directive’s legal framework. As befits that awesome responsibility, clearly, weighty and dense reports are called for. So far in the current review round we have had an Evaluation Roadmap; guidelines and reports by the Commission-convened multi-stakeholder Thessaloniki Forum; an Inception Impact Assessment; and now a study evaluating the effectiveness of the Directive. You know these sorts of studies – the sort that has more authors than readers. Reports written by consultants.
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Sustaining Sustainable Tourism Drones: Deconflicting Competitive UTM
In what will come as absolutely no surprise to the parents of teenagers, the age of iPhones and Instagram has fuelled an adventure-hungry generation. What is somewhat more surprising is that the World Travel and Tourism Council felt the need to ask McKinsey to write a report about that. It was published just before Christmas. The large crowds in front of the Mona Lisa are only to grow larger, the report warns, as a curious and globally-minded generation of millennials enters their peak earning years. At least there is some comfort for parents in that last phrase. To be fair to the WTTC, the question is what to do about it. How is this sustainable?
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