Aviation Intelligence Reporter June 2025
- What’s in a Name? Airports Funded by State Aid will smell as Sweet Airspace World Meets Eurovision: Colour and Movement
- Airspace World: Open or Closed?
- And the Award for Genuinely Amusing Award Ceremonies Goes To…
- The Real History of ARINC
- J-P Sartre Investigates: The Existential Mystery of the Missing SAF
- A Call for Fair Competition and Passenger Choice in Rail in the EU
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What’s in a Name? Airports Funded by State Aid will smell as Sweet
What is the purpose of an airport? This question is at the core of a debate currently taking place in windowless meeting rooms of the EC’s equivalent of Room 101, the notorious Tour Madou: home of DG COMP, responsible for enforcing the European Union’s rules about when a government can pay part of a company’s costs – potentially to the detriment of a competing company not receiving similar aid.
The current rules on state aid to airports and airlines, dating from 2014, expire in 2027. So, for airports that want to stay attached to the public financial teat, now is the time to convince DG COMP why that should continue. It seems to be widely believed that airports sprinkle magic fairy-dust onto the companies and people around them, providing wealth, strength and beauty. However, the austere judges of the Court of Justice seem to be immune to fairy tales. In 2000, following a dispute about ground-handling services at Aéroports de Paris, the CJEU determined that airports conduct an economic activity, in a defined market, and are therefore subject to the EU’s competition and state aid rules. The CJEU further clarified this in a later ruling on Leipzig-Halle Airport. The court stated that an airport that is commercially operated constitutes an economic activity, and that would include receiving government aid for the construction of infrastructure such as a runway.
Airspace World Meets Eurovision: Colour and Movement
Timing matters in life. Things happen for a reason. That Airspace World was held in Lisbon as the same week as the Eurovision Song Contest cannot have been a coincidence. The parallels are striking. Very bold, very shiny, very brash use of primary colours. Lots and lots of lights and lighting effects. Bold and in your face statements. Terrible jokes. Razzamatazz. Jazz hands.
As befits Eurovision, there was a choice of musical styles to choose from. There was the option of ballads, sung by the traditional suppliers, telling of years of devotion and service, of a lifetime together. This is the style always chosen by the French. In the alternative, there were the classic Eurovision songs, upbeat, catchy refrain, driving beat. The Spanish do this every year. The songs may be fast-tempo numbers, but the theme is all about everlasting (even if not fully appreciated) love. Then, there are the new age songs, with fancy costumes that look to the future, all spacesuits and funny glasses. These are sung by the drone industry; lots of colour and movement, a bit of saucy dancing. The more interesting songs are the ones that are a bit quirky and maybe act as a pointer to the future of musical style. The sort of songs that almost everyone will sing next year, to look down with the young folk. Everyone except the French and the Spanish, that is. This year, these were songs that looked towards, hinted at, just a trace, of open systems. The question is how do the judges, and more importantly, the consumers, score the options? Jacques Mason has his own view [see below].
Airspace World: Open or Closed?
By Jacques Mason – Independent Aviation Consultant
Here we are again; Airspace World 2025 has just closed its doors in Lisbon. There were many expectations of seeing a technological revolution in the 11 months since the last gathering in Geneva. Those hopes were quickly dashed. The proposed products were more of the same. Maybe more Remote Tower solutions, maybe fewer drone and UTM solutions. For many the only innovation was the way they were presented – the prize for the most surprising booth was the one selling strip printers and associated rolls of paper.
And the Award for Genuinely Amusing Award Ceremonies Goes To…
Very rarely does a keen sense of humour appear as key performance indicator in a trade show awards’ judging process. But there were smiles all around last month when at this year’s Airspace World event in May in Lisbon, a Federal Aviation Administration apparatchik rather sheepishly, and at speed, accepted the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) award – highlighting projects that demonstrate successful diversity, equity and inclusion programmes helping to identify future talent and skills – on behalf of the JFKIAT, the operator of Terminal 4 at JFK International Airport. Although, to be fair, the prize celebrates work done in 2024.
The Real History of ARINC
By Robert Poole, Director of Transportation Policy, Reason Foundation
Today ARINC is part of Rockwell Collins and provides numerous services for commercial aviation. However, its early history as an airline-owned nonprofit played a key role in the birth of US air traffic control. I first learned about ARINC from a co-worker at General Research Corp, my second post-MIT job. He had worked at ARINC in the 1960s and explained that it had helped begin US air traffic control in the 1930s. In 1977, thanks to a small grant to explore ATC history, I was able to visit ARINC headquarters in Annapolis, Maryland. I came away with an unpublished history of the company from 1929 to 1942. My notes from that meeting included additional information on ARINC through to the 1960s.
J-P Sartre Investigates: The Existential Mystery of the Missing SAF
Chapter 3
It took me a while, but I got the big guy from Big Oil out of my office eventually. What he left behind was a big cheque – my favourite type – and absolutely no further paperwork. I did get him to sign a retainer, but I made sure to put my thumb over the bit about conflicts. Mind you, he was so Drill, Baby, Drill that he looked like he rather enjoyed a conflict. I was starting to like them myself.
A Call for Fair Competition and Passenger Choice in Rail in the EU
Nick Brooks, SG of ALLRAIL, the Alliance of Passenger Rail New Entrants
At ALLRAIL, based out of Brussels, we champion a vision for passenger rail that prioritises passengers, competition, and sustainability. Our mission, as outlined in our publications on our website, is to accelerate market liberalisation to achieve the ambitious climate change goals in Europe and around the world. A cornerstone of this vision is ensuring that all rail tickets, regardless of the operator, are shown and sold at all rail ticket vendors across the EU. This principle is not just about convenience; it is about fostering fair competition, giving full transparency to passengers and by doing so driving accessibility and modal shift to rail.