Aviation Intelligence Reporter – August 2018
This Year’s Annual Summer of Discontent
The Challenge to Growth? Us
Distribution in the Age of the Internet: Spreading the Load
You Brexit You Pay For It – Update
The Tale of Richard the Third (Runway)
Getting What You Pay For; Paying For What You Get
Aviation Intelligence Reporter Crossword 010
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This Year’s Annual Summer of Discontent
Ah, the lure of summer. The call of the cicadas; long languid days by the beach; long evening meals with friends and family as the heat cools off: we work all year for these few weeks of relaxation and recharge. A time for reading junk novels, or for pretending you are reading serious books whilst reading junk novels. Alternatively, you can read press releases threatening industrial action, or press releases threatening those threatening Industrial action. Who does not long for the call of a ‘Summer of Discontent’ as the weather turns? Simple pleasures, reminding us we are alive.
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The Challenge to Growth? Us
The seemingly-never-ending European heat wave has not discouraged passengers from travelling. The European network experienced its busiest ever day on 29 June, with 36,825 flights. However, as Eurocontrol’s Challenges of Growth report points out, that level of traffic is unsustainable. It has the potential to damage the industry if unchecked. Slightly over half way into the year there have been 8.9 million minutes of en-route delay. This is an increase of 133% from last year and only 400,000 short of 2017’s total.
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Distribution in the Age of the Internet: Spreading the Load
Just before the summer break, a storm that has been brewing for three years between traditional travel agents, legacy airlines and the future finally broke. The European Technology and Travel Services Association filed a complaint with the Ombudsman demanding that the Commission bring action against Lufthansa. Some time ago, Lufthansa introduced a €16.00 surcharge on anybody booking a ticket other than from the Lufthansa website. IAG followed suit. The travel agents have been complaining to the Commission ever since, but there has been no sign of action, hence the complaint. For their part, DG MOVE says that it is studying the situation and that it is very complex. That it is.
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You Brexit You Pay For It – Update
When wars were fought according to more gentlemanly rules of engagement, and with weapons of limited range such as muskets and cutlasses, it was considered good sport to pack a picnic and head out for a day to watch battles unfold. What sport, what fun, to watch the fate of nations unfold before one’s eyes. As the weapons became more deadly, and less discriminating, that particular entertainment lost its appeal.
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The Tale of Richard the Third (Runway)
The battle to get a third runway approved for the south of England can only be described as Shakespearian. It has taken years but was finally voted through in the UK House of Commons in July, albeit with the Foreign Secretary leaving the country to avoid having to vote in line with his Cabinet obligations. He went to Afghanistan rather than honour his promise to ‘lie down in front of the bulldozers’. That was a moment of farce in a bitter and long-fought campaign. Which only begs one question: what would Shakespeare make of the entire event? Here is our modest proposal.
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Getting What You Pay For; Paying For What You Get
For all the thousands of pages and millions of words so far spent on trying to get a modern, fit-for-purpose ATM system in Europe, none come close to closing the gap as pithily as the ten words above. First put forward by the late John Rathrey, they sum up exactly what we should be aiming at. Imagine if it were possible. We might be able to introduce commercial thinking. We might be able to introduce competition.
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