Aviation Intelligence Reporter
April 2023
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Desperately Seeking Trust
The industry is regaining a bit of its swagger. Suddenly, there are conferences being convened, and being attended, by a new generation of airline executives, and a new generation of airlines. That fundamental inherent optimism that you need to work in aviation is back, and more importantly, the alpha apex beasts of optimism are talking about, and indeed actually, starting new airlines. New airlines! Imagine.
Airspace World: Desperately Seeking Paradigm Change
Conferences are funny things: speakers are preselected to put their point of view (and, usually, that of the conference organisers); limited time allocated for debate; terrible coffee. Sometimes, either when everybody agrees, or nobody agrees, with a particular speaker, there can be some rare unanimity, but the changing of minds is not why people attend. The two most useful things conferences (and yes, AGMs too, as we approach AGM season) can provide are long coffee breaks and wide corridors. Exhibitions, on the other hand, are different. People go to those to sell, or to buy, or at the very least to window-shop and to see which way the wind is blowing.
A4E: Desperately Seeking a New Narrative
The Airlines Four Europe annual conference has one perennial question. Does Ben Smith exist? When the event was held virtually, we would sometimes see glimpses of what might have been a person, apparently called Ben Smith, but might equally have been a holograph or an example of early AI technology. But, before long, technical issues would intervene; ‘Ben Smith’ would fade into the ether. Now that we are back to real conferences Air France/KLM must feel that the technology will not withstand contact with reality, so he merely sends regrets. Consequently, the press conference that precedes the public meeting, and the highlight of the show, the CEO debate, again moderated by CNN’s Richard Quest, featured only the Three Musketeers, Athos, Porthos and Aramis themselves, easyJet’s Johan Lundgren, Lufthansa’s Carsten Spohr and Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary. De Tréville, the Captain of the guards, in-coming chair of A4E, IAG’s Liuis Gallego, did appear virtually, nursing a ski-ing injury. That leaves Smith, the D’Artagnan of the story, still to join his colleagues, muskets at the ready, sword in hand, up for any stoush, prepared for swashbuckling adventures.
Airlines: Desperately Seeking SAFs
Aviation is politics flying. There is never a moment when some politician, somewhere, is not doing something that impacts aviation – and almost never for the good. Because we are talking politics, often there is more than one politician involved. And, because we are talking politics, those involved are acting from a point of principle, even if that term is narrowly defined. Along the lines of that politician’s electorate or pet lobby group.
Schiphol: Desperately Seeking Legal Clarity
The sustainability debate is throwing all the normal ways we do things into stark relief. Once, slots were something that airlines managed, under the disinterested gaze of the CAA. It was so far below the radar that it was even invisible to sonar. Not anymore. It is now no longer the CAA, or even the Department of Transport, that is paying attention, it is the department for sustainability. In The Netherlands, as we foreshadowed last year, Schiphol Airport has been instructed to reduce its annual movements from nearly 500,000 to 440,000, a 12% reduction. Unsurprisingly, litigation ensued.
ATM: Desperately Seeking (Free) Data
Airspace World’s hunt for a new paradigm was not without irony. The most obvious and most advanced of the new entrants, the Advanced Aerial Mobility sector, is getting close to lift-off. As we have argued in the past, things are rapidly moving beyond trail and demonstration flights to commercial operations. But there was still something of an us and them feeling about Airspace World. AAM was being told to fit into the way of the world, the current paradigm. Despite the fact they bring an entirely new paradigm with them. Yes, the AAM community was there, had stands and a theatre for presentations. But, the AAM group were largely talking on AAM topics, to each other, rather than having a more fully integrated approach. The fact that Amsterdam Drone Week – the AAM industry’s major jamboree – was the next week was not helping that sensation.
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
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