Aviation Intelligence Reporter – February 2019
2019 – The Year of Capacity: Fair or Foul?
What a Piece of Work is a (Wise) Man Person Group
Airport Charges: Once More Unto the Breach
Drones and Counter-Drones: At Least Be True to Thine Own Self
Aviation and the Zero Emissions Target: Nothing Will Come of Nothing
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2019 – The Year of Capacity: Fair or Foul?
Striding onto stage, Macbeth kicks off the story of his demise by noting what a fair and foul day it is. The witches get into the swing too, telling him that fair is foul and foul is fair. Those witches had a pretty good batting average in the predictions caper, so could we be taking lessons from them as we look at what 2019 might look like? Is foul fair? The start of the year normally comes out of the blocks with a rush of predictions, but the pundits have been surprisingly quiet recently. Impending trade wars, Brexit, government shut-downs, geo-political tension and economic slow-downs all make for downbeat headlines. So is all that foul weather a harbinger of a fair future?
What a Piece of Work is a (Wise) Man Person Group
For several months now, a hand-picked cohort of the finest and the best brains in European air transport have been gathering to discuss, consult and soon, to advise on what they see as the best way to solve Europe’s air traffic problems. This is fair enough; turning to sages to help us understand where we are, and more importantly, how to move forward, is as old as trips to Delphi. Indeed, it is a time honoured ploy within aviation. Who can forget the High Level Group that was convened at the time of Single European Sky I? Or the Committee of Sages before that? Anyone?
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Airport Charges: Once More Unto the Breach
Seasonal festivities over, the airlines and airports have gone back into their trenches for the next round of disputing airport charges. The review of the Airport Charges Directive is still on the Commission to-do list, so both sides are digging in for one more big push. It could get very bloody. The airlines have brought their big gun forward, the mortar that fires off volleys of statements that airfares are falling but airport charges are on the rise. It is an irrelevant correlation, mixing cause and coincidence, but it fires round after round towards anyone that will listen.
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Drones and Counter-Drones: At Least Be True to Thine Own Self
In the summer, we noted that the efforts to get approval for a third runway Reported drone sightings stopped both Gatwick, for nearly 36 hours, and Heathrow for an hour or so, before Christmas. The airports did as they were told by the police and shut down operations. An expensive manoeuvre at any time, and doubly vexing close to Christmas. What were the airports to do? All the usual knee jerk reactors jerked their knees reactively and the press brayed for more draconian responses. If at all possible, pre-emptively please.
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Aviation and the Zero Emissions Target: Nothing Will Come of Nothing
Are we close to peak drone? The last week of November saw three As hundreds of thousands protest in the streets, the demand that Something Be Done on the environment rings ever louder. So meetings are arranged to discuss how to do that something and the delegates fly into and out of the location. Davos, for example. By private jet. Airlines want nothing more than a quiet life; to continue to grow with as little pain as possible. The industry saw off a global emission trading scheme, and established CORSIA in its place with the compliance of the nearly supine ICAO, but the new generation marching around Europe and elsewhere is looking hard at the Paris Agreement’s 2050 goal of net-zero emissions and total decarbonisation.
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