That Was The Week That Was 11-15 January 2021
It’s raining State Aid
You may remember that last week, we wondered if it was the new year at all, or just a continuation of the old year. That might seem slightly unfair; this year, we are looking at how best to distribute vaccines – a problem we would like to have had for most of last year.
Here at Aviation Advocacy, we like to be helpful. We also like to make suggestions that perhaps others have not thought of, by bringing our aviation expertise to bear. The people faced with vaccine distribution issues are not normally aviation experts – although there is not an airline that does not want you to be in any doubt about their role in flying vaccines around the world. Photo after photo of happy cargo folk, with big boxes. Here is Air India’s contribution to this new genre of aviation breaking news. KLM felt the need for a film. Investors saw only upside, and after a terrible year, we can surely forgive the ‘shot in the arm’ pun.
But, notwithstanding all these happy smiling cargo staff helping distribute the vaccine, it is fair to say that in many countries the vaccine distribution is stuttering. That is not because the cargo people are involved, far from it – it is because the distribution is being handled by medical people. There are other experts we should be enlisting as a matter of some urgency to ensure widespread, comprehensive distribution. Aviation has something to offer here and it should be acknowledged and marshalled. We need to bring in the true experts – the people that handle State Aid. We are spreading State Aid around Europe in a way that makes the good folk in DG SANTE and in health departments around Europe look, frankly, flat-footed. To be fair to us, we have had more practice. We are coming into the 2021 competition off our long run-up.
In the last week alone we have showered State Aid in Croatia, Cyprus, Germany, Estonia, Romania, Romania again, Denmark, Bulgaria, Hungary, The Netherlands and Croatia again too…. But, best of all, we also justified the huge amounts of State Aid given to Alitalia, sorry, New Alitalia. That this was signed off by none other than Executive Vice President Vestager herself must have Google and Facebook quaking in their boots….
Imagine, for a moment, if this expertise was deployed to the distribution of vaccines. Problem sorted.