Aviation Intelligence Reporter – December 2009-January 2010
Buying Civilisation
The Inconvenient Truths about Aviation and Environment
Safety and the Commission – never knowingly out of the game…
The Agenda for Freedom (from logical scrutiny)
The Smoking Gun
Banning Barcelona
Rebranding ICAO
Protecting Consumers – Parliament is serious, but are they sure?
Mergers – they bring people together
Shakespeare and air transport. More than a flight of fancy
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click hereBuying Civilisation
Oliver Wendell Holmes once said that he liked paying tax. When he paid tax, he was
buying civilisation. There is truth in that the airline industry might like to take to heart.
The ‘no-new-taxes’ crowd in air transport, constantly banging the drum about increasing
charges, might want, at this time of peace and goodwill to all, to stop and think about life.
…
The Inconvenient Truths about Aviation and Environment
By Jacques Mason, Independent aviation consultant.
Epiphany. That is what the airline industry started to have in Montreal during ICAO’s
High Level Meeting. Finally, the penny is starting to drop – at least for some. The whole
political debate about aviation and global warming is not actually about aviation and
global warming.
…
Safety and the Commission – never knowingly out of the game…
There seems to be two things in European air transport that are ubiquitous: the all
pervasive role of the European Commission; and the use of the slogan ‘Safety is our first
and foremost priority’. It is impossible to go anywhere in Europe without the feeling that
these two forces for self-proclaiming good have been there before you.
…
The Agenda for Freedom (from logical scrutiny)
The Aviation Intelligence Reporter has long been in support of IATA’s push for regulatory
reform which goes by the unfortunate title of the Agenda for Freedom. IATA is
congratulated for the very major step of getting a number of governments from around
the world to sign a joint declaration in November.
…
The Smoking Gun
Nothing gets into IATA’s in-house magazine Airlines International by accident. Like the
Pravda and the People’s Daily, keen Kremlinologists scrutinise it for the signals and
portents it may leave trailing.
…
Banning Barcelona
The low cost carriers might soon refuse to fly to Barcelona. They cannot seem to take a
trick there.
First, at a conference in October that focused on low cost carriers, or low fare airlines
(LFA) as the LFAs prefer to be called, the CEO of an American LFA was outraged that
he was required to pay €12.00 to use an iron to iron a shirt. What? Unbundling of
services, making sure that consumers only pay for what they use was practically
invented by the LFAs. How dare someone else do the same thing right back at them?
…
Rebranding ICAO
From the moment you walk towards ICAO’s post-communist revolutionary-functional
architectural delight of a building, you just know that this is not a funky sort of place. The
building seems to have been designed specifically to make some of the grimmer parts of
Warsaw look attractive.
…
Protecting Consumers – Parliament is serious, but are they sure?
The most recent attempt by the European Parliament to protect consumers comes from
the ‘If-this-wasn’t-true-it-might-be-funny’ file. Some months ago, and amid much fanfare,
the Commission released the results of an audit of airline websites. The
sanctimoniousness was palpable.
…
Mergers – they bring people together
The fate of Japan Airlines is proving interesting, not only for those directly involved, but
for students of aviation policy generally. And, it may have an environmental angle.
…
Shakespeare and air transport. More than a flight of fancy
Shakespeare strides across the English speaking world, shaping our thinking, our
emotions and our logical structures. Some argue that he not only underpins our canon
of thinking, he defines our canon.
…