Aviation Intelligence Reporter August 2024
- The Bumper Summer Reading Edition
- The ACI-Europe AGM: Talking Türkiye
- Farnborough 2024: Hurry Up and Wait
- The Future? The Frame Alone Must Be Worth Millions
- AAM: WWK-WWKWDK+WWDKWDK=X (where X is the unknown)
- Taking a Tour on the Art of Lobbying
- Out Of Office – The Summer Challenge
- The Aviation Advocacy Annual Crossword 016
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The ACI-Europe AGM: Talking Türkiye
John Mortimer, the author of Rumpole of the Bailey, once advised young writers to never underestimate the importance of sporting analogies in the English language. The DG of ACI-Europe, Olivier Jankovec, has obviously taken this advice to heart. In his state of the industry address at the ACI AGM in Istanbul in early July, in this year of both the Euros and the Olympics, he picked up that ball and ran with it. Hard.
He came in off a long run, took aim, and kicked truly – a clear message to regulators around Europe – by brandishing a red card. He would immediately expel from the pitch the regulators of both Ireland (the Irish Aviation Authority) and France (Autorité de Régulations des Transports). Theatrically, he produced a red card from his pocket and held it up for all to see. Would have been better if he had a whistle too, and some pathetic grovelling from the IAA and the ART, including that weird hands together as if in prayer thing players do, but it was a start. It might have been too much to ask for them to show up only to get red-carded.
Farnborough 2024: Hurry Up and Wait
By Jacques Mason, Independent Aviation Consultant
It was, indeed, a strange kind of air show. For an industry built on chutzpah it was strange to see such a low cloud of uncertainty hang over the airfield. One of the main raisons d’etre of an airshow is to understand more about the future – market drivers, supplier capabilities, new technologies, the possibility of game-changing research. But the aerospace industry is at a crossroads, and someone has removed the signposts, or rather replaced the simple signage with a mash-up of confusing indicators. Just around the corner there are a raft of technologies which will redefine both the civil and military sectors. Autonomy, clean fuels, electrification, hydrofication (not a typo), smart structures, digital battlespace and communications networks are the future frameworks in which civil and military aircraft manufacturers will play; but the leap to the future is so huge and the dangers of picking the wrong road so potentially catastrophic that the clever money is on waiting until it is blindingly clear which new technology partner offers the fastest route to market and hope by then it won’t be too late.
The Future? The Frame Alone Must Be Worth Millions
In late July, the mad dogs and airshow men (and women) once again went out in the mid-day mixed weather at Farnborough. Facts may be fixed, but the framing is optional and Farnborough is the right frame for the industry to talk about the future. Which was not sustainability; you could find discussion about it on about day three, tucked away behind new orders and all the usual airframe porn of an airshow, in sparsely attended press conferences announcing the signing of a new intention to look at creating a means to discover ways of working together. Lack of content has never stopped the gushing, of course, and time after time, we were told just how very excited everyone was. Please.
AAM: WWK-WWKWDK+WWDKWDK=X (where X is a critical unknown)
By Philip Butterworth-Hayes, Editorial Director of Unmanned Publications
“So, how much do you want to borrow?”
“Just one point five billion US please. That’s how much it’s going to cost us to certify our
eVTOL. It might be more if we run into technical difficulties, we don’t really know.”
“And you have customers.”
“Yes, we have lots of pre-orders and letters of intent.”
“But you don’t have much money upfront.”
“Not as such. No.”
“But you are sure people will want to fly in it. How much will you charge them?”
“We think there’s a market but of course we won’t really know until we start flying and we
won’t know how much to charge them until we’ve nailed down our operating costs.”
“Ummn. What do you think your operating costs will be?”
“Well obviously we can’t tell you at the moment but we’re talking to some people now. We don’t know exactly how much infrastructure, maintenance, security, electricity, air traffic management and charging will cost. Or when it will be built. The certification standards for most of it haven’t been written yet but there’s loads of useful guidance material around.”
“And you want to fly from downtown in the next three years. How much will the local
authority charge you for an operating licence?”
“We’re not sure. We haven’t told anyone in city hall about this yet. We haven’t found
anyone competent to talk to.”
“Well what about basic operating costs?”
“We don’t really know this yet. The regulator might need us to have a full time
emergency response team at all our vertiports. Fingers crossed they won’t but we can’t
be sure.”
“And all of this in three years.”
“Yes.”
“Well that all sounds very reasonable. Here’s some money.”
Taking a Tour on the Art of Lobbying
New Commissions mean that as fast as desks are cleared before the summer holiday, all the usual industry suspects line up to make their case for what the future must hold. It is Brussels’ very own form of folk dancing. So welcome to the European Tourism Manifesto. The Tourism Manifesto, a group, not a document, apparently, is more than 70 public and private organisations aiming to standardise tourism policies and practices. Hence, ‘Tourism in Transition: A New Consensus for Change’. It starts out mandatorily noting the centrality of tourism and travel in Europe and its socioeconomic importance, laced with a hefty helping of aspirational language. ‘Tourism can and should champion Europe’s appeal and its competitiveness’. ‘Champion’ is a good word to use, as tourism can enhance public image and bring in new businesses. The revenue generated by tourism is self-sustaining, providing continued access to historical sites and supporting infrastructure. Until, as is now the case in Barcelona, it does not.
Out Of Office – The Summer Challenge
Brussels resembles one of those 19th century paintings of Rome; tourists walk among the ruins of an ancient civilisation marvelling at what once was; cows in the background. Everyone has fled. Arriving Martians might assume a plague. Politico estimates that only 20% of its readers are still in Brussels. Wait until August kicks off properly. In other words, we are at peak out of office message. Sadly, mostly, these are very dull indeed, verging on the sombre, and full of detail. I am away, but in my absence, do please talk to someone you have never heard of, or a general all-purpose address where you know your message will get all the attention that desk thinks it deserves. Some of these, of course, are unintentionally funny, noting that they will be away for six weeks, like somehow, that is to be expected, and that your correspondent has no intention of looking at her or his messages in the meantime. Good luck standing out amid the spam, the bargain travel offers, the discounts this week at your local butcher and stuff from other colleagues on that person’s return.
