Aviation Intelligence Reporter
April 2024
To read the full report please login first.
Do you want to become a member?
AI: The New Flavour of the Month
CANSO held its second Airspace World at Palexpo, Geneva’s exhibition space, in late
March. There have been grumbles about its cost since Geneva was announced as the
location three years ago. CANSO got a great rate on the space, following the poaching
of the Geneva Car Show by Qatar, but the delegates still need some of life’s little
luxuries, like coffee and a hotel room. Next year, Airspace World will decamp to Lisbon.
Without for a moment seeking to look down on that lovely city, a repository of most of
Brazil’s wealth, it will be interesting to see how Lisbon itself responds to the arrival of
CANSO’s event. In Geneva there were huge banners on the side of Palexpo telling the
world about its upcoming event, Watches and Wonders. Given that everything about
aviation is a wonder, and what do controllers do if not watch a screen, such that a group
of them could be called watchers, you might have thought that it was about Airspace
World. Alas, no, it was not. For Geneva, Airspace World did not even merit a banner. A
watch show, on the other hand, is welcomed with open arms, and wrists.
The Level Playing Field: The Traditional Flavour of the Month
Airlines Four Europe, which held its annual CEO Summit during the same week as
Airspace World, is also committed to recycling. Luis Gallego, the CEO of IAG, noted that
every year they say the same thing. A4E’s new DG, Ourania Georgoutsakou, making
some space for herself, noted that things were going well, numbers wise, but boy oh
boy, word wise, or regulation wise anyway… The figures did rather make a mockery of
the complaints, so the only tone possible was please be-so-much-better. She then
launched a new charter, aiming to position Europe’s airlines as connected, dependable,
modern, sustainable and available to all, five adjectives that are not far off the mark
today. In a further hat-tip to recycling, the charter was printed on a big panel and all 17
of A4E’s members’ CEOs signed it. It is an old schtick, but a good old schtick. We will
miss it when the A4E does not roll it out. The charter spent the rest of the day in front of
one of the screens, ruining the sightlines for half the audience. So, job done.
Airport Regulations: Fit for 2019
Reviewing regulations from time-to-time is a smart idea. A chance to take stock, to see
what, if anything, needs to be changed. Take airports, for example. The Commission is
proposing a ‘fitness check’ of its regulations. This will include slots and ground handling,
but at the A4E Summit charges was the topic the airline CEOs want to complain about.
A fitness check conjures up images of tracksuits, stopwatches and shouty trainers. The
correct image is one of paramedics, epi-pens, defibrillators and desperate thumping on
the chest as the Airport Charges Directive disappears into the beyond.
Revenge Lifestyle: The New Black
For a while there all we talked about was revenge travel. That weird term for people
choosing to take revenge on a virus for stopping them from travelling, or something like
that. Who coined this phrase? What were they thinking? It turned out that revenge is
not only best served cold (and close to ski slopes) but also just as well served warm (and
by the sea) and at moderate temperatures close to museums and every other tourist
destination you can nominate. You might also have thought that revenge was a one off,
but no, we are determined that Covid will forever know its place. Revenge apparently
needs to be taken over and over. Never again will we let Covid think it can stop the
world. No, we are determined to show it that we can get back to living a full life. In fact,
living a fuller, more hedonistic life than before.
SES 2+ Reform: A Once in a Generation Stop-Gap
We talked last month about the monumental achievement of the Belgian presidency of
the Council in getting the SES 2+ package to the door of a trilogue. A remarkable effort
in any person’s language. Or was it? What is the word, in any person’s language, for a
damp squib? For an elephant giving birth to a mouse? For a gnat brought forth after
mighty labour? If you listen to the airline associations, that is the sort of language you
are going to hear. The Commission and indeed CANSO were not searching for that
language. They were much more sanguine. With much to be sanguine about. This
dossier is now marked ‘Closed’.
Climate Change Mitigation Policy (Part 2): ICAO and the UNFCCC
By Chris Lyle, aviation consultant
The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 outsourced the mitigation of international aviation emissions
to ICAO (and international shipping to the IMO). The adoption of the Paris Climate
Agreement in 2015 means the Kyoto Protocol has by now effectively lapsed. Specific
international aviation and shipping emission text was cut out of the draft Paris
Agreement at a late stage during COP 21 – with cursory consultation and too late to
amend. However, international aviation is implicitly encompassed by the Agreement in
the same way as any other sector. Legal analysis in 2021 confirmed that international
aviation emissions are now to be included in the UNFCCC’s Nationally Determined
Contributions (NDCs). This was affirmed at COP28 in December 2023.