Aviation Intelligence Reporter August 2023. The Bumper Summer Reading Edition
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Emission Targets: Time for Demand Management?
White Smoke Over DG MOVE: Welcome to the New DG
Sometimes, You Have to Pity the Airlines
Passengers Deserve the One Skyteam Star, with LCC Cluster
The Tale of the Great God SAF
FAA: California Dreamin’ as it Regulates AAM
The Aviation Advocacy Annual Crossword 015
Emission Targets: Time for Demand Management?
By Chris Lyle FRAeS
The scientific consensus is that aviation’s global CO2 emissions would have to peak by 2025, be reduced to half of 2019 levels by 2030 and cut to zero by 2050 (no, not ‘net’ zero – no carbon offsetting, no capture and storage). The industry consensus is that we have to begrudgingly accept an ‘aspirational’ goal of net zero in 2050. But aviation’s emission mitigation measures will be inadequate to achieve the Paris Agreement targets. The truth is that demand management needs to be added to the mitigation package.
White Smoke Over DG MOVE: Welcome to the New DG
White smoke has been seen emerging from the chimney of DG MOVE. We have a new Director General. She will replace Henrik Hololei. Welcome back to Magda Kopczyńska. Back, because prior to her current role as Deputy DG in Agriculture and Rural Development, she had been a Director at DG MOVE, responsible for maritime, inland waterways and ports. Two senior promotions within a year says a lot about how she is regarded at the top of the Commission. It will be a change of pace for team aviation. When Hololei left the building, it must have taken several hours to pack his collection of model aircraft – some impressively large – but seconds to pack both his model ships. One was a massive container vessel, the other a fully rigged ship of the line, all gun ports open. Whatever the size of her fleet of model ships, Kopczyńska will need to start from scratch if she is to build a Hololei-like fleet of aircraft.
Sometimes, You Have to Pity the Airlines
Once upon a time, the airlines were the only thing that mattered in aviation. To this day, say ‘aviation’ and most people think ‘airlines’. But that flight departed some time ago. When Giovanni Bisignani was the DG of IATA, he commissioned none other than Michael Porter to do a complete review. His conclusion? Start again. The system the airlines built for themselves through IATA in the 70s and 80s, simply does not scale. As much in frustration as anything else, from time to time the airlines lash out. The most recent example of this was Finnair, which put restrictions on online travel agents in Sweden. The Swedish Competition Authority considered this to a ‘abusive restriction’. A fine of SEK 100 million is possible. Finnair decreed a policy that no OTAs could advertise Finnair prices on metasearch engines cheaper than Finnair’s own reference price. Really, you have to admire the chutzpah more than anything else.
Passengers Deserve the One Skyteam Star, with LCC Cluster
One of the definitions of bravery is to run towards the fire. Bravery deserves recognition, most usually with a medal. Malta, then a British colony, was awarded the George Cross for bravery in 1942, after surviving siege and terrible hardship whilst acting as a staging post for much of the logistics for the North Africa campaign in World War II. The airlines should be giving the people of Britain and other northern European countries a similar award, the One Skyteam Star, with LCC Cluster perhaps, for their unerring bravery in continuing to demand flights to Spain, Italy and Greece, even as fires rage and people working outdoors drop dead. The situation has got so bad in Italy that the populous is being advised, as if advice is necessary, to wear linen. But still the passengers bravely run towards the fire, egged on by the airlines and other tourism bodies.
The Tale of the Great God SAF
Once upon a time, nestled between lush green hills and winding rivers, there existed a quaint little village named Airlinbrook. The villagers lived a simple and harmonious life, proud, but not boastful, of their superpower. They could fly. They were happy to offer lifts to the residents of other villages, taking them where they wanted to go. Usually, they would do so at no profit to themselves, safe in the knowledge that the Airlinbrook Council would help them out. The citizens lived happy, harmonious lives. They worshiped the sun, moon, and nature’s bounties. Their hearts were filled with love and kindness, and they had no need for grand deities or extravagant rituals.
FAA: California Dreamin’ as it Regulates AAM
Last month, indeed on Bastille Day, the US Federal Aviation Administration published an updated Fact Sheet which laid out what rules local governments could apply to electric air taxis and drones. ‘States and local governments may not regulate in the fields of aviation safety or airspace efficiency but generally may regulate outside those fields,’ said the simple keep-off-the grass notice. ‘A state or local law will be pre-empted if it conflicts with FAA regulations.’ That sounds simple enough, but the interface between the local levels of government, with its concerns with town planning, privacy and security and that of the FAA and more general ‘aviation’ matters, has always been vexed as each side tries to be sure that their role is not underestimated. Rather like the famous French revolutionary clashes between the nobles and the bourgeoisie.
