{"id":803,"date":"2018-03-23T17:00:53","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T15:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/?p=803"},"modified":"2018-03-26T09:27:48","modified_gmt":"2018-03-26T07:27:48","slug":"that-was-the-week-that-was-19-23-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/?p=803","title":{"rendered":"That Was The Week That Was: 19 – 23 March"},"content":{"rendered":"In Noel Coward\u2019s Private Lives, the central couple rely on \u2018the inspiration of the moment\u2019 for their communications strategy.\u00a0 That, of course, assumes that it is not going to be a moment completely without inspiration.\u00a0 This week, the week that was, we can sympathise.\u00a0 After last week\u2019s poetry, this was a week completely without poetry.\u00a0 It did not even rhythm or attempt to do so.\u00a0 No, this week was a week for naked short-sighted greed.\r\n\r\nMonday<\/strong> started with the news<\/a> that Africa has overtaken Europe as the preferred destination of Chinese tourists.\u00a0 The tourism industry likes to remind us, regularly, that one in five new jobs will be in the tourism sector.\u00a0 The Bulgarian presidency of the Council of the European Union has had a major focus on tourism, and attracting Chinese tourists in particular.\u00a0 In a week when the drums of a trade war have moved from background to centre stage, this is going to be interesting.\r\n\r\nBecause on Tuesday<\/strong>, the TRAN Committee of the European Parliament voted<\/a> for what can only be called a ridiculous version of the revision of Regulation 868 \u2013 the so called \u2018Fair Competition\u2019 regulation.\u00a0 It is hard to imagine a more unfair, protectionist, short-sighted, trade destroying piece of legislation, or to be fair, draft legislation, in the history of trade wars, but no doubt the European legacy carriers loved it.\u00a0 It perhaps goes without saying that the Aviation Intelligence Reporter <\/em>will look into these things this month.\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, Ryanair\u2019s move on the eastern European market by acquiring almost 25% of Niki \u2013 now Laudamotion, making it sound like something taken against the vapours \u2013 will be less good news for the legacy carriers, or one of them, anyway.\u00a0 The 25% will rise to 75%\u00a0 in the near future, according to<\/a> Ryanair; that is, of course, if DG Comp gives its blessing.\r\n\r\nBy Wednesday<\/strong>, the stupidity of the TRAN Committee was becoming public.\u00a0 The airports\u2019 association had realised that the draft TRAN Committee draft was a total disaster and was not afraid to say so<\/a>.\u00a0 Sadly for the ACI, the extreme right and Euro-sceptic ECR group \u2013 yes, it counts UKIP as a member, as well as the UK Tories \u2013also dislike this proposal, on anti-protectionism grounds.\r\n\r\nDistasteful partners are one thing; cold hard cash is another.\u00a0 Word started circulating of the incentives various remoter Chinese airports have been giving to well-known European legacy carriers.\u00a0 Surely this could not be the sort of thing that calls for \u2018redressive measures\u2019??!!??\u00a0 It just might be.\u00a0 The only way to avoid that would be to tell the truth.\u00a0 The truth.\u00a0 You know, you have heard of it.\u00a0 A brave track, but hey, if you want to stop nasty foreign carriers, you need to be clear.\u00a0 If it was being truthful, the proposed revision will just say that \u2018European airlines are exempt.\u00a0 This is an attack on foreign carriers\u2019.\u00a0 There, fixed that for the Committee.\r\n\r\nSo to Thursday<\/strong> and the legacy carriers were in serious need of a diversion.\u00a0 Step forward the French controllers.\u00a0 When all else fails\u2026\u00a0 On cue, unable to stop themselves, even when to do so might be to their advantage, down went the tools.\u00a0 The A4E wasted no time in hitting back<\/a>, noting the ruination of your holidays.\u00a0 Spoiler alert \u2013 they are shattered.\u00a0 Now would be a good time to relearn the word \u2018staycation\u2019 etc.\u00a0 Europe\u2019s economy risks irretrievable damage, etc.\u00a0 Intolerable, etc.\r\n\r\nBy Friday<\/strong>, things were getting out of hand on the trade war front, so we reverted to that old stand-by, a new runway at Heathrow<\/a>.\u00a0 Right runway, IATA thundered<\/a>, wrong price.\u00a0 The appropriate response here is to put away your irony-o-metre, and sit back and enjoy the ride\u2026","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Noel Coward\u2019s Private Lives, the central couple rely on \u2018the inspiration of the moment\u2019 for their communications strategy.\u00a0 That, of course, assumes that it is not going to be a moment completely without inspiration.\u00a0 This week, the week that was, we can sympathise.\u00a0 After last week\u2019s poetry, this was a week completely without poetry.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,13,15,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-air-navigation-service-providers","category-air-traffic-management","category-airlines","category-airports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=803"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":804,"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803\/revisions\/804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}