{"id":808,"date":"2018-04-06T17:00:49","date_gmt":"2018-04-06T15:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/?p=808"},"modified":"2019-07-23T11:43:27","modified_gmt":"2019-07-23T09:43:27","slug":"that-was-the-week-that-was-2-6-april","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/?p=808","title":{"rendered":"That Was The Week That Was: 2 \u2013 6 April"},"content":{"rendered":"It was a quiet week, this week, the week that was.\u00a0 The Easter holiday meant that those that could were ski-ing or otherwise taking a break.\u00a0 The mad-cap pell-mell helter-skelter rush to legislate and regulate before the break gave way to quiet contemplation, chocolate digestion and weather dodging.\u00a0 Certainly in Europe, as if to mock us further, the weather improved the closer we got to needing to get back to the grindstone.\r\n\r\nStill, the wheels of aviation ground on.\u00a0 On Monday<\/strong>, Thai authorities announced<\/a> that the beach where the film \u2018The Beach\u2019<\/em> was filmed was to be closed, to see if they could actually get it back to the virtual reality of the film that made it famous.\u00a0 The actual reality of the real world as it actually is was not a good thing, apparently.\r\n\r\nSo on Tuesday<\/strong> when Etihad proudly told the world<\/a> that it was using virtual reality devices to test what customers think of their proposed new lounges, the die was cast.\u00a0 This was a week for virtual reality, not the real thing.\u00a0 That is fine and innovative, but it is the thin end of the wedge.\u00a0 By definition, aviation is analogue.\u00a0 People and things needs to move from one place to another.\u00a0 If we start letting digital solutions into the tent, who knows where it ends? What is the point of a holiday that requires, you know, heat and dust and crowds and, you know, buying a ticket and getting on an aircraft, if we can get a VR solution?\r\n\r\nOnce, some years ago, IATA organised a series of webinars, so that participants did not have to travel on, wait, oh, could it be, oh yes, aircraft, to get to a meeting. \u00a0When the trade association for the companies that fly people around on aircraft start to do that, virtual is a good word for the grip it has on reality.\u00a0 So it was really no surprise when on Wednesday<\/strong> that vice-like Tarzanesque grip was shown again, this time in Latin America.\u00a0 Spend much, much more on infrastructure, its DG thundered<\/a> in Santiago de Chile.\u00a0 Infrastructure, regulation and costs are key to harnessing aviation\u2019s superpowers.\u00a0 Oh, and by the way, reduce our taxes and charges, because by costs, obviously we mean our costs.\u00a0 Pay for the infrastructure from someone else\u2019s pocket.\r\n\r\nBy now, the virtualness of reality was really starting to bite.\u00a0 Thursday<\/strong> saw the Philippines\u2019 president go one further \u2013acting like he was an extra on The Beach <\/em>film set, he also closed one of the Philippines\u2019 famous beaches, calling it a \u2018cesspit\u2019.\u00a0 Now that is a virtual experience for the technologists to duplicate.\r\n\r\nBut all of this was warm up. \u00a0Mere prologue to a virtuoso virtual reality reality show of an editorial<\/a> from our very dear friends the European Cockpit Association (yes, deconstruct that name at your leisure) on Friday<\/strong>.\u00a0 Pilots, it seems, do not like liberalisation.\u00a0 They used to love it, but not anymore.\u00a0 Sure, passengers are happier, aircraft manufacturers are happier, airlines are happier, but who cares about them?\u00a0 Not the pilots, no siree.\u00a0 What about the workers?\u00a0 Do you think it is easy running an import-export business when suddenly you are required to actually do your day job?\u00a0 Safety.\u00a0 Wait, did somebody mention safety?\u00a0 Keep the wet-lease rules.\u00a0 Whatever you do, keep the ownership and control rules.\u00a0 Nothing should happen until the pilots have been consulted.\u00a0 The pilots, you understand, are an essential part of the industry.\u00a0 Unlike, say, the customers, or the airlines.\u00a0 Ask yourself, do they have a fancy hat?","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a quiet week, this week, the week that was.\u00a0 The Easter holiday meant that those that could were ski-ing or otherwise taking a break.\u00a0 The mad-cap pell-mell helter-skelter rush to legislate and regulate before the break gave way to quiet contemplation, chocolate digestion and weather dodging.\u00a0 Certainly in Europe, as if to mock […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,15,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-air-traffic-management","category-airlines","category-airports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808","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=808"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":810,"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions\/810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aviationadvocacy.aero\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}