Aviation Intelligence Reporter
June 2022
MEPs Want an Even Fitter 55
Long Term Aspiration Seeks High Level Group for Meaningful Exchange
European Council Wants Less Single European Sky
Brexit Trade Wars at Twenty Paces?
Who Will Win the Eurocontrol Song Contest?
Three (Vaccine) Shots to the Wind
Still More Public Money for Air France – But Do Not Call it State Aid
Airports, Emissions and Charges: Now it is a Good Idea?
To read the full report please login first.
Do you want to become a member?
MEPs Want an Even Fitter 55
Once, the European Parliament was a fork, in a world of soup. The Commission proposed and the Council disposed. The best Parliament could hope to do was edit. Now, post-Lisbon treaty, it has the ability to affect the outcome of legislation. From being largely ignored by lobbyists it is now a central hub for lobbyists. We have moved to the Commission proposing, the Parliament repurposing, and the Council disposing. How important the Parliament and the MEPs have become is clear when bills go into the triologue process. MEPs have the power to block change until a suitable compromise is reached. That is why on the Fit for 55 package, which was considered in the Environment Committee of the Parliament in mid-May, all those that wanted a different outcome – meaning the legacy airlines – were prepared to write and distribute their own views before embarking on extensive lobbying. You will recall that the Fit for 55 package is an array of measures to reduce Europe’s emissions by 55% by 2030.Long Term
Aspiration Seeks High Level Group for Meaningful Exchange
Preparations are now in full swing at ICAO Centrale for the next General Assembly, scheduled for the two weeks at the end of September and the beginning of October, in that tiny window when Montreal is vaguely habitable. The mosquitoes have gone, the snow is merely on the horizon. The semiotics of holding a meeting when the weather is deteriorating by the day is interesting. You might be tempted to say that it would lead to shorter, faster meetings, but if you think that, you have never been to an ICAO meeting. Diplomatic niceties must be met, apparently. No, we do not know why either… Still, on steamrolls the preparations. Has ICAO ever convened a low-level group or meeting? If every group is a high-level group, sorry, High Level Group, the term is meaningless. They are all just Level. ICAO has resolved this by calling yet another High Level Group, and then demanding an omerta of total secrecy. So, it turns out there is a level of High Levelness about High Level: A Need-to-Know-Only-Basis Level Group.
European Council Wants Less Single European Sky
The MEPs may want a fitter Fit for 55, but the Council is no surer now than it has ever been, on whether it wants a more single Single European Sky. In fact, it is difficult not to come to the conclusion that the Council is not interested in a more singular single sky at all. The current level of singularity is fine, thanks. After years of work by the Commission, the Parliament, and the airlines on the Single European Sky 2+ proposal, all that the Council’s member states (proud owners of the ANSPs), want is that Europe’s sky not be single, but simply that everyone play nice. We are at the mighty labour: bringing forth a gnat interface.
Brexit Trade Wars at Twenty Paces?
The war of words between the United Kingdom and the European Union continues. If it was not so important, it would be funny. When it comes to what it should do regarding the Good Friday Agreement and the Northern Ireland Protocol, the UK looks like a production of Hamlet, played by the Teletubbies. The ‘eyes on the throne’ Foreign Secretary wants to buff up her Margaret Thatcher image by talking tough, and those that actually negotiated it are trying to either rewrite what the words say or prove beyond doubt that they never read it. The Commission, which comes from a different school of negotiation – something more along the lines of saying what they mean and meaning what they say – look on increasingly alarmed, rather than the original position of bemused. The Commission’s approach is apparently not appreciated across the channel. Add to that a UK Prime Minister under real political pressure on other fronts looking for diversionary rally-round-the-flag press coverage. In such a febrile environment it may only take a stray spark to light the touchpaper.
Who Will Win the Eurocontrol Song Contest?
By quirk of fate, once every five years, two of Europe’s most important contests all but overlap. Eurovision is the warm-up act for the big one, the selection of a new Director General of Eurocontrol. In both cases, the selection is both by way of popular approval, but also, more importantly, by political process. A political process that is as opaque as it is decisive. The question on everybody’s lips as final rehearsals and sound checks are being undertaken is whether anyone can beat Patrick Ky to be the next DG? Ky, the Executive Director of EASA, has long been seen as the favourite to replace Eamonn Brennan, who is not seeking a further term in office. Other contenders are the recent former ECAC President Ingrid Cherfils (and Director for Strategic Development and Management in the Swedish Transport Agency), Raúl Medina Caballero (immediate past president of Eurocontrol’s Provisional Council and the DG of Civil Aviation in Spain) and Jan Klas, the CEO of the Czech Republic’s ANSP, ANS-CR.
Three (Vaccine) Shots to the Wind
Step outside in most cities these days and you will see something that closely resembles 2019: busy city streets, movie theatres, cafes and restaurants filled with patrons eating, drinking and being merry. Plus, of course, the occasional mask wearer. However, just because we now operate in the wild blue yonder of a post-vaccine world, it does not mean that the world has actually caught up with the immunity level, or the times. Or the developed world, anyway. In the developing world, the situation is not so clear.
Still More Public Money for Air France – But Do Not Call it State Aid
When the European Coal and Steel Community was established, in April 1951, there was concern that the entire venture was nothing more than a means to create a Franco-German industrial machine. Those fears have never totally dissipated. It was the guiding light of British policy towards Europe; encouraging expansion to dilute the power of France and Germany. That policy was replaced by xenophobia more recently.
Airports, Emissions and Charges: Now it is a Good Idea?
To Thessaloniki, to allow regulators to meet again with airports and airlines. At least to a WebEx call that allows regulators to meet with airports and airlines but taunts us all by continuing to call itself the Thessaloniki Forum. Once, those meetings were in person, and sometimes, in nice places like Thessaloniki. Everyone would troop off, be inspired by the surroundings, the history and the sense of occasion, and common accord would be reached. We will think of them as the good old days soon – if not already. The irony of the aviation industry holding meetings by Zoom has not been lost; although, to be fair, IATA took the long-distance travel out of distance learning courses long before the pandemic.
For more on these topics and other industry issues, do not hesitate to contact us at info@aviationadvocacy.aero or visit our blog: www.aviationadvocacy.aero/blog