A cornucopia of news, opinion, views, facts and quirky bits that need to be talked about. Join our community and join in the conversation on all matters aviation. The blog includes our weekly round-up of the bits of European aviation you may otherwise have missed – That Was The Week That Was
The weekend saw the start of yet another air show, this time in Singapore. There were lots of stories about aircraft sales and the Boeing Airbus head-to-head, but the big story was, as ever, not covered. IATA, as it is want when the DG goes anywhere, took the opportunity to release yet another press release about how the world needs to gift its members more infrastructure. This time, Asian governments were being told to open their wallets and to repeat after Alexandre du Juniac ‘Help yourself’. No mention, you will note from the pro-forma release, on how this will be paid for, but hey! Hand up anyone brave enough to suggest that increased charges might be a good idea. What about taxes?
Monday was spent therefore looking, without success, at coverage of that oft-repeated message. What did get some coverage, at least amongst the lawyers, was the confession from du Juniac that airport privatisations were a failure. Really? How would IATA know? Their complaint is that charges are high. We have analysed this claim in the Aviation Intelligence Reporter over the last few months and it is largely bunkum. To be fair, charges can go up, but that is irrelevant to the airlines who continue to have record growth, and profits. Given that the airlines are not prepared to fund new runways and airports – and in the case of IAG’s Willie Walsh, are on an active campaign to stop Heathrow’s expansion – they are not really interested parties any way.
Nonetheless, airport charges are a hot topic at the moment. The European Commission is mid-consultation. That has brought the crazies out of the woodwork. Despite even the Commission’s hired consultants saying that in Europe, the UK system is the best one, IATA attacked it. Which is odd, given that:
Their members are on the record for endorsing it; and
IATA has never shown up for a consultation.
By Tuesday, IATA’s own Pravda, Airlines International was gracing mailing boxes around the world, and what a bumper edition it was. It had the usual instructions on how to form an orderly queue to receive your free infrastructure and complain that there is not enough of it; but also, as a special feature, there was an attack on the Australian airport charges regime. Australia’s system is similar to the UK’s (or, more accurately, the UK’s is similar to Australia’s). The system requires the airports and the airlines to reach commercial decisions. There is no regulation but the threat of regulation. Despite arraying quotes of people saying just how bad the Australian system was, one very important fact was overlooked. If an airline, you know, one of IATA’s members, has a problem, all they have to do is bring a complaint via the proper channels – funnily enough that does not include the IATA in-house magazine – and regulation will rain down. No airline has done this. Why might that be? This was not canvassed in the Pravda. Nor was why the magazine accepts advertisements from airports. If they are not competing, why advertise?
Wednesday saw the release from the air show of an interview with the DG of DG MOVE, Henrik Hololei, who noted that a post-Brexit UK would not be in EASA. That cannot have warmed the hearts of the UK CAA, the DGCA of which is on the record, with a very strong speech, about just how vital it is that the UK does remain within EASA. Speaking at a Commons Parliamentary Committee meeting late last year, the airlines, including Willie Walsh himself said exactly that too. Indeed, as far as IAG is concerned, EASA membership is the only thing that matters.
Closer to home, at least for the Commission, they are now also facing a petition from the Belgian PM that Brussels Airlines is to be fully absorbed into Eurowings by its owner, Lufthansa. This, notwithstanding that the Commission cleared the Lufthansa purchase of Brussels Airlines in 2007. Nevertheless, that did not go down well, as once again, nationalism rears its ugly head. Not helping was the interview with the CEO of Brussels Airlines in the Pravda that came out this very week about just how very well things were going at Brussels Airlines.
Brexit was on the minds of easyJet on Thursday. They changed their structure so that more than 50% of its ownership was European – allowing it to establish a base in Austria, whilst also having a free-standing UK company to use the UK AOC. That is fine insofar as it goes, in that it addresses the ownership requirements. What remains untested is the ‘and control’ bit of the test. The Commission generally is taking a bullish approach to Brexit at the moment. Will they read the entire test (‘substantial ownership and effective control’) before approving of this arrangement?
By Friday, more Brexit reality was sinking in. The tour operators advised that in-bound tourism to the UK was already suffering because of Brexit. Well, it would be wouldn’t it? Xenophobia is not traditionally a great tourist attraction – particularly to foreigners…
