Aviation Intelligence Reporter September 2023


To read the full report please login first.

login here

Do you want to become a member?

click here

New Work Year, New Workplan

You Know it is Silly Season When…

In Italy, it is Never Stagione Sciocca

The Tale of the Great God SAF Part 2

Aviation Intelligence Reporter Annual Crossword 015 – Solution

New Work Year, New Workplan

After the summer, the staff of the European Commission reassemble – tanned, relaxed, fit and strong. Some of them, having spent the summer on various physical pursuits, risk being declared a danger to shipping. However, if you work in DG MOVE, this year more than the other four in the Commission’s five-year cycle, that is not what you want to be. No, you want to be seen as pro-transport and pro the causes of transport. This is the year that there will be European Parliament elections and a change of Commission. The elections are on the weekend of 4-6 June next year. There is no time to lose.

You Know it is Silly Season When…

Ah summer… the languor of long hot days, long twilights, stone fruit and stories about supersonic flight. It would not be summer if we did not get at least one story about a new start-up company determined to bring back supersonic flight, armed, as you must be, with a business plan that somehow makes sense. Makes sense, when read on a lounger on the beach, with help from an unlimited supply of pina colada. We have had Boom Supersonic, we have had Venus Aerospace, with the emphasis on the ‘space’ part of their name. Its plan is to make terrestrial flights faster by zipping into outer space before re-entry at your destination. Old news. They belong to silly seasons past.

In Italy, it is Never Stagione Sciocca

Airline price-fixing is in the news again. Sweden’s Competition Authority admonished Finnair for disallowing metasearch engines from listing airfare below Finnair’s reference price. Now, Italy’s government has taken centre stage in the new round of the always popular game show ‘Fix My Price!’. There are calls for the next franchise of this ever popular, or at least populist, game to be staged in Australia, and/or France.

The Tale of the Great God SAF

Part 2

Eliza looked at the red faces of the Atagers and saw their anger. No-one had questioned them before. ‘Net-zero is not Zero’ she repeated.

‘Oh yes it is!’ the Atagers replied in unison.

‘Have you been practising that?’ Eliza asked. ‘Let’s just do some sums, shall we?’ she tried, reasonably.

‘No-one dares question the great God SAF’ screamed Atager 1, for they were interchangeable. ‘No-one! The Great God SAF is omniscient, so if your sums do not add up to the answer the Great God SAF has produced, your sums are wrong!’

‘Are they? Really?’ Eliza asked. ‘If I was a God, I would be sure that my workings were accurate. What are you afraid of?’

Aviation Intelligence Reporter Annual Crossword 015 – Solution