Aviation Intelligence Reporter July 2021
Airport Regulation: Hole-y Not Holistic
The A4E Goes All Band-Aid
Can You Make Diamonds by Putting Carbon Certificates Under Pressure?
Airlines Support Recycling – At Least When it Comes to Slot Exemptions
Drones Ahoy! What Role for Local Government?
The Unbearable Lightness of Being IATA
The ACP Manifesto – To the Barricades Comrades!
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Airport Regulation: Hole-y Not Holistic
When airlines, airports and ANSPs were branches of the civil aviation department, it was possible to have joined up thinking and joined up regulation. As airlines privatised, they broke away from much of the regulation, but were more than happy to take advantage of the regulation and oversight of the airports and ANSPs. This regulation is often around charges, working from the assumption that each was a monopoly and thus economic regulation was justified. Flag carriers, which in many cases at the moment of deregulation were also monopolies, skipped free of fare regulation.
The A4E Goes All Band-Aid
By any standard, the last 18 months have been somewhat unpredictable. So, we should give thanks for the one thing that has been solid and unchanging – airline CEOs are still sure that someone else should pay. The vibe at this year’s A4E CEO Summit was very much the good old days of Band-Aid. All that was missing was Bob Geldorf demanding
that you ‘give us your fecking money’. As with the original global Band-Aid weekend, there were video links from around Europe, there was a parade of greatest hits, there were star turns and there were giant egos. The technology worked nearly all the time. There was also a surprisingly touching moment, but no mention of starving children.
Can You Make Diamonds by Putting Carbon Certificates Under Pressure?
Diamonds are created by putting carbon under pressure, so there might be grounds for hope yet for airlines that hold carbon certificates. The price of the allowances has been fluctuating for some years, but recently their price has come under real pressure. During the pandemic, the price has risen to more than €50 a tonne. The UK has introduced its
own emission trading scheme, with certificates at £50 a tonne. Environmental lobby groups think that €250 a tonne is closer to the mark if the real goal is decarbonisation. That would add pressure to the airlines as they start to restart. But, there are other sources of pressure too.
Airlines Support Recycling – At Least When it Comes to Slot Exemptions
Ah, summer 2021: the smell of cut grass, outdoor dining, the languor of long staycations, the unmistakable sounds of Euros 2020 and the Tokyo Olympics 2020. Somewhere in the background, there is the sound, like the arrival of cicada at the height of summer. It is the sound of airlines bringing aircraft back from hibernation and pinning their hopes on
a late, but very positive summer season, as they respond to the increasingly pent-up frustration of all those pent-up travellers. As much a part of the buzz of gearing up, there is an increasingly familiar sound that is being added to the mix – the airlines begging for still more relief from the risk of competition.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being IATA
Chapter Two – in which I get to work; looking into the ‘TravelPass thing’ and other
mysteries
My contract signed, I set to work. First stop was virtually Brussels. It is going to get harder for existential detectives like me if this Zoom thing carries on. A virtual Brussels is one thing – most people have just about got their head around that – but to go to Brussels virtually is another. This was a Zoom call with the European Commission, so a real virtual meeting with virtual Brussels. It was a meeting about the ‘TravelPass thing’. It seemed to me that the problem was simple: everyone was phoning it in.
Drones Ahoy! What Role for Local Government?
When aircraft fly overhead, unless you are very near the airport, issues such as noise, nuisance and privacy are not big concerns. Nor is the question of where to put a landing stage. When drones and urban aerial mobility devices – flying taxis to the layman – fly overhead, they are huge issues. What role should the local government play, or be expected to play, in regulating this new style of aviation? This is a problem that both Europe and the US have been grappling with.
The ACP Manifesto – To the Barricades Comrades!
Traditional bricks and mortar trade association are being pressed to do more with fewer resources. Instead, we have seen the arrival and growth of single item pressure groups, managed out of the offices of professional lobbying companies. Perhaps the sine qua non of these is the Airline Coordination Platform. The ACP, and its Astroturf ‘popular’
front Europeans for Fair Competition (and poor spelling, known as it is as E4FC), has been comedy gold since its inception. The ACP has devoted itself to campaigning against Europe entering into more liberal air service agreements with other countries. But not every other country, only those that do not share our values of fair competition, such as crushing competitors with the use of the slot regulation, or our distaste of state aid. Oh, wait, no! That was then, this is now! Now, we love state aid, but we still hate the nasty Gulf carriers, because, because, well, if they arrive the fight will not be fair.