Aviation Intelligence Reporter – October 2018
IATA Joins the Blame-the-Real-Culprit-for-Delays Bandwagon
GDS Consultation – Time to Book Your Place
Costs and Controllers
Taking Ownership and Control of Brexit
Social Dialogue of the Deaf
What Value is Another Consultation on Charges?
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IATA Joins the Blame-the-Real-Culprit-for-Delays Bandwagon
The delays in Europe’s airspace continue to accumulate. So it is good to see that our modest campaign – enlisting pilots, when talking to passengers, to name and shame national politicians that refuse to fix the problem – is starting to get some traction. From the DG of IATA, Alexandre de Juniac, no less. He uses his editorial in this month’s Airlines magazine to note that delays are getting worse. He sheets the blame for this on national politicians and ‘key ANSPs’. His last thought on the subject is to encourage you to action. ‘So the next time you hear the dreaded air traffic control delay announcement consider using the time to write to your local government representative to ask them to do better. And encourage your friends to do the same’ de Juniac suggests.
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GDS Consultation – Time to Book Your Place
What is the purpose of competition law? Yes, a philosophical question, but one worth considering occasionally. Your answer may well reflect what role you play in any market. As a consumer, you are hoping that competition law will make the market open to competitive forces, to your benefit. As a competitor in that market you want a level playing field, unless of course, it slopes in your favour. However, as a competitor in the market, the law may stand in the way of you doing things that would make perfect commercial sense, such as making sure that your pricing is not too keen, or that you and your competitors do not try overlap your offerings too much. From that perspective, competition law makes behaviour you would otherwise engage in illegal.
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Costs and Controllers
IATA’s airspace reform proposals [above] will not be welcomed by the controllers’ unions. The suggestion that there be both further focus on performance – currently it is done via the Performance Review Board – and reform of work practices more generally is not one, but two, red rags of provocation. The controllers’ position is clear. They are as mad as hell and are not going to take it anymore, etc. They contend that the PRB focus on reducing costs has meant that they are not being appropriately trained and rewarded. Do not get them started on any attempt to reform work practices.
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Taking Ownership and Control of Brexit
The dispute between Qatar and its neighbours (Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi We reported last month on the speech DG MOVE’s DG, Henrik Hololei, gave in Washington, where he bravely raised the question of ownership and control. That generated some comment, most of which was along the lines of ‘why now?’ With the publication of the latest round of ‘no deal planning’ papers from the UK government at the end of September, Hololei’s logic became clearer.
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Social Dialogue of the Deaf
Our old friends at the European Cockpit Association are at it again, demanding what can only be called social monologue with Ryanair. To be fair to the ECA, Ryanair is not all that responsive to their demands. That does not please the ECA, who are pilots and thus demand the respect their fancy hat is due. Over the course of the summer the ECA’s press releases on the topic of the industrial situation between their member pilots and Ryanair have described a near perfect arc, from the passive aggressive to the outright abusive. Funnily enough their principal beef seems to be that they are not being listened to. Which is odd really, given that Ryanair is now recognising unions at their various bases. You might think that is exactly what the ECA was demanding. Ryanair has even started to negotiate with the newly recognised unions on logs of claims. No wonder the ECA is angry.
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What Value is Another Consultation on Charges?
Unless you have been living on a raft, drifting aimlessly across a vast expanse of ocean, you will know that the topic of airport charges continues to ignite passions in Brussels, and indeed, around the world. The airlines continue to complain that this particular input to their costs is much too high. Airports continue to argue that the good old days are gone, and that airlines can no longer expect everything for nothing. As part of the Aviation Strategy of 2015 the Commission undertook to conduct a consultation about the charges, and with appropriate delay, has now done so. Stakeholders have been consulted and questions put to them. The responses are now public. They make for fascinating reading. Fascinating, but not easily accessible, reading. There may be a more annoying and convoluted way to present responses but it is difficult to imagine how that might be done.
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