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What a week that was, the week that was. We risked having an existential week. We had to think about all the things that matter to us: ownership and control; Britain outside the European Common Aviation Market; the right to strike; and airport charges.
Kicking us off over the weekend was the announcement from the very precociously named US Republican congressman, Dave Brat, that he was moving to change the currently extremely restrictive US rules on ownership and control of US airlines to bring them into line with the rest of the world. That is, to change the rules of non-US ownership to 49% from the current 25%. So much for ownership. The jury is still out on control. Part of his draft bill is a sentence that requires management of US airlines to be performed by US citizens, or holders of the right to residency in the US. Now that verges on the xenophobic, depending on how one chooses to parse the last little bit.
What is more intriguing is why Brat would come up with this now? The US majors are doing well; they need no foreign money to strengthen their balance sheets, unlike say ten years ago. Congressman Brat is a Trump Republican. Watch this space.
Leading neatly to that new old chestnut: Brexit. It is rumoured that there might be a total relaxation of ownership and control of airlines by the UK government in reaction to Brexit. That might be because of things like the answer President of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker , gave on Tuesday to a question on notice from an MEP about Brexit. Never on to shy away from Brit bashing, Juncker wrote, ‘the Commission has taken note of the decision by the United Kingdom Government that it does not want the future relations with the Union to be based on the EU single aviation market. The outcome of the withdrawal negotiations on the future relations will determine the nature of the future EU/UK aviation relations.’
A total relaxation of ownership and control rules by the UK would explain IAG’s statements that they have no problems with traffic rights post Brexit. easyJet has said the UK CAA would recognise their UK spin-off airline as a UK airline after the holding becomes 51% EU owned. Norwegian has also said NUK will be able to continue expanding after Brexit. Either there is something in the UK water or something else is going on. France on the other hand, is plotting a new law to restrict or prevent foreign take-overs and control of key sectors, which seem to include transport.
By Wednesday we were about ready for a lie down, but the big news just kept on coming. You may not have noticed it, also on Tuesday the European Commission Ombudsperson announced the introduction of a simplified procedure for bringing complaints to her office. First cab off the rank? The controllers. Of course. They claim, and have now formally lodged a complaint that, the Commission’s Aviation Strategy document from 2017 and the staff working document on ATM do not respect their fundamental right to strike. That might of course be because that is not a European competency.
You may recall that the ETF and ATCEUC had a meeting with Commissioners Bulc and Thyssen about this last summer. Obviously the meeting did not go well… They were fuming about the Communication and SWD, which were part of the DG Move’s Open & Connected package. They were informed of the content one day before the release, which was one day later than journalists who were shuttled to Brussels from all over Europe. Mind you, CANSO was not informed about the content of the Communication either.
As a first step the Ombudsman’s office has asked for a meeting with the Commission to inspect documents that are relevant to the complaint. On the basis of this meeting, the Ombudsman will then decide on her next steps. This is perhaps the most remarkable part of this story. We would be happy to give the documents to the Ombudsman. They are online. Quite why she needs to go and see the Commission to inspect them is a mystery.
Thursday saw the DG of IATA, Alexandre du Juniac speaking at the Wings Club in New York. You will be shocked to learn that he wants everyone else to give the airlines money and infrastructure. Obviously, even for IATA that would be too blatant, so it was dressed up as using ‘common principles’ but you can guess what they add up to… The Business of Freedom demands nothing less. Stress the ‘free’ part.
So it was probably not helpful that his Latin American members’ other association, ALTA, published a very thoughtful piece that noted that maybe taxes pay for the very things that generate passengers. It might be time, it concludes to stop and think. That will never catch on around the aviation industry.
Which neatly took us to the end of the week, and what a week it had been. But good old dependable, the US carriers themselves backed up du Juniac, announcing that they oppose any tax increases too. What a shock. Form an orderly queue for your handouts here!
