Aviation Intelligence Reporter – December 2019 / January 2020
We Need an Air and Space Green Moonshot
Multi-Modal Interlining – Is There a Role for Aviation?
How Green is my Bandwagon?
Hong Kong: The Tear Gas Scented Fragrant Harbour
Jumping the Space Shark
Amsterdam, Urban Air Mobility, Drones and an American Invasion
How to Make a Patchwork Quilt
Digital Overtourism: Our Fingers Are Doing the Walking
There is a Certain Slant of Light With apologies to Emily Dickinson
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We Need an Air and Space Green Moonshot
This year is the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 and the first man on the moon. It was a remarkable achievement. As President Kennedy said when he announced that he chose to go to the moon ‘in this decade’ he did not choose the target because it was easy, he chose it because it was hard. He went on, ‘the goal will serve to organise and measure the best of our energies and skills, because the challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one that we are unwilling to postpone, and one that we intend to win…’ That speech, that goal setting and that drive is a text book example of leadership.
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Multi-Modal Interlining – Is There a Role for Aviation?
The EU is very keen on seamless transport. It was one of the big items in the last Commission’s mandate. Is there a heart that does not beat quicker at the very memory of 2018, the Year of Multi-Modality? It is a big item in the new mandates too. Digital, trans-European, multi-modal, seamless, decarbonising… yes, if this is your card when the next round of buzz-word bingo fires up, you are sitting on a winner. But, as fine as all the fine thinking is, as ever, the devil is in the detail.
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How Green is my Bandwagon?
Suddenly, there is a not very orderly queue being formed to prove to the world just how very green each airline is. KLM kicked this off, asking its passengers whether it was appropriate that they fly for short-haul flights when there are train services available. They want their passengers to fly less. Cynics might note that this particularly applies to the very short-haul flights where the yield is low. Higher yielding long-haul flights, which would benefit from any slots that are freed up, are less environmentally challenging.
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Hong Kong: The Tear Gas Scented Fragrant Harbour
Hong Kong is a good place to drink in autumn, as humidity abates and typhoons relent. So it promised to be a jovial location for an even merrier affair: the Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines’ Assembly of Presidents, whose clunky acronym AAPA AP adds seriousness to what is the annual gathering of the drinking club with an Asian aviation problem. But, by the time of the meeting, the venue was on the border of protests at nearby Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Police fired 1,491 canisters of tear gas in one day. An attendee might have been confused why there was so much discussion of Thai Airways – except that talk of ‘TG’ is not a reference to Thai’s IATA code, but tear gas. So often has it been deployed that it has become an acronym.
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Jumping the Space Shark
The phrase ‘jumping the shark’ originated in Hollywood – of course – after Fonzie, the too-cool-for-school character in the one-season-too-many season 5 of Happy Days, was required to jump onto a shark, whilst wearing water skis. It is that moment when business as usual is not going to work anymore, so a gimmick is needed to reinvigorate a franchise past its prime. Which leads us to the industry known as ‘commercial space’, a volatile world where the line between innovation and shark jumping is very fine.
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Amsterdam, Urban Air Mobility, Drones and an American Invasion
Behind the scenes at next month’s Amsterdam Drone week, great forces will be at work. The USA and Europe are on a collision course in the battle to write the standards and rules for Urban Air Mobility and UTM. At the moment, the USA is in the driving seat. The winner will be first into the market with the target level of safety for UAM. NASA wants ‘in between road and air’; EASA suggests ‘the same as airlines’. Important operational rules on how safety-critical data will be shared among stakeholders and how competition for services might be organised depend on the definition. These are vital enablers for any organisation wanting to build a business in these sectors.
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How to Make a Patchwork Quilt
As all lovers of handicrafts and united communities know, a patchwork quilt can be a thing of beauty, giving joy to generations, making people happy and keen to contribute. Families and special interest groups can come together to make and grow a patchwork quilt. It is a fun and life-affirming activity for all. Others eschew the patchwork quilt for reasons not totally clear, apart perhaps from tribalism. Our tribe hates patchwork quilts, which is odd really, given how very good we are at making them.
Digital Overtourism: Our Fingers Are Doing the Walking
According to the World Tourism Organisation, tourism was worth US$1.17 trillion last year. But the decreased cost of travel and increased social media exposure, leading to an influx of tourists, can be devastating, even existential. This is increasingly known as overtourism, according to a report to the European Parliament TRAN Committee by Professor Paul Peeters of the Centre for Sustainability, Tourism & Transport at the Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands.