That Was The Week That Was – 04-08 January 2021
The 4th of January, or the 35th of December
There was not a person in the industry that did not want this year, year 2021 0f the Common Era (what we call AD nowadays) to be better than 2020. If ever we need hindsight, it was now to look upon the works of 2020. Very long distance hindsight… Instead, we noted, rather than celebrated, the end of 2020 in our family bubbles, locked down and curfew-ridden. Even by the cold light of morning it was clear that the new year was going to be awfully like the old one. So the first day of work for most was not so much a new leaf, new hope, new year, it was like it was December 35.
The more you think about it, the better the idea gets. If December has not ended, there need not be a Brexit. The new tax year has not started – or the old one ended – and we all still have time to finish those projects we promised to be done by year end. Like the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian one, this could take a few years to catch on but it is worth thinking about. The UK rejected the Gregorian calendar for many years, thinking it a Papist device for upsetting the world order. It was first introduced in 1582, but only accepted in the UK and its colonies, as well as the US, in 1872. The Julian calendar assumed a leap year every four years, instead of 99 every 400 years. Ten days were lost in Europe and 11 in the UK. For nearly 300 years international contracts needed to calculate and use two dates for things like delivery of the goods and performance of the obligations.
So my suggestion, that we just run on through December, until we all, genuinely, feel that we have turned the corner is much easier. Only one calendar change called for. We just keep plugging away. Simple. What is the alternative? To rename this blog That Was The Week That Wasn’t?
What this week wasn’t was the industry roaring back, better than ever, healthier than ever, stronger than ever. What actually happened this week? Reports filtered in of more, more and still more state aid being given to airlines; depressing traffic reports and confusion and mayhem surrounding the distribution, or failure to distribute, vaccines.
The state aid stories were a classic example of what politicians call ‘putting out the trash’. In other words, sneaking bad news out late in the week, or in this case, late in the year, when no-body is watching. So, in that little gap between Christmas and new year, that gap when right-thinking people are occupied on matters of family and food and rest and relaxation, out came news that the most deserving of cases for state aid, yes, everyone’s first thought for such aid, Alitalia, were gifted a further €73 million. Monday, the first working day was spent processing this largesse.
But, before those from the north of Europe get all upset about this typical southern profligacy, Tuesday saw TUI get €1.25 billion, yes, billion to be recapitalised. TUI has 12 months to get the state down to 25% ownership and six years to get that down to 15%. In what can only be called a very long, back protecting press release, it was ominous that there was no mention of there being a requirement that the recapitalisation come with an undertaking to align with the Paris Agreement, or anything similar. The UN Secretary General had specifically asked that to be the case last year, but that was soooo 2020.
Still keeping the spigot open on Wednesday was the European Parliament releasing new guidelines for the funding of transport infrastructure – the famous TEN-T funds. The new guidelines notes that air transport and its related infrastructures (sic) are essential for connecting the EU globally and internally, including its rural, sparsely-populated, peripheral, island and outermost regions; for ensuring multimodality; are an important tool for accelerating the uptake of alternative fuel; the further development of the Single European Sky II+ initiative is urgent and crucial to bringing about more efficient and sustainable infrastructure connectivity; and that the COVID-19 crisis has shown the value of air transport for the economy as well as the connectivity of passengers and goods, and therefore the need to ensure its resilience against new risks and crises. If you cannot find a heading to get your application for free money into one of those categories, you really are not trying.
In the 1982 Tom Stoppard play ‘The Real Thing’ there is a discussion about digital watches. One character notes that the Swiss watch industry did not rush to build them, because, he notes, it realised that ‘the number was up for digital watches’. That may equally be true for the Trump presidency in the US, but the brand new Portuguese presidency of the European Council took time on Thursday to kick start its presidency, and the decade of The Digital Decade, by noting that it was Time to Deliver. First to appreciate that were, unsurprisingly, Amazon, that announced this week that it was buying outright a fleet of freighter aircraft.
Friday was the anniversary of the shooting down of the Ukrainian Airlines flight as it took off out of Tehran, and ICAO felt the need to put out a more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger press release bemoaning the fact that the Iranian authorities are yet to comply with the usual terms of Annex 13. What the release did not discuss was the fact that the UN’s Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, Agnes Callamard has called for action to address such outrages. That someone outside ICAO is, in effect, commenting on what should be in ICAO’s wheelhouse is a major moment in the UN world.
So, December rumbles on, we are back to work and we all, all of us, everyone one of us, cannot wait for 2021 to start.