Trapped In The Geriatric Framework. The Outlook For Europe And The North Atlantic As Brexit Looms

While sales and distribution seem to have no territorial boundaries, the actual operation of airlines remains trapped in the archaic design of 70 years ago. The constraints of the bilateral system are a massive constraint on airlines’ ability to make truly commercial decisions.Open skies is a chink in that armour, albeit perhaps a diminishing one, but nothing illustrates the shortcomings of the system better than the tremors created by Brexit. Despite the uncertainty created, the UK remains one of the world’s key aviation markets and will now be forced into a transition to an as yet unknown set of bilateral and multilateral relationships.Negotiating a package with the multiple interests of the EU countries is one thing; recreating a complex North Atlantic multilateral is another. An array of innovations has been enabled by the freedom created by both the Single Market and the US-EU multilateral, many of them strenuously opposed by US and other pilots unions, so disruption is clearly on the cards.

Moderator: John Byerly, Consultant, Principal, John Byerly
Panel:

• Croon Callaghan Aviation Consulting, Partner, Jim Callaghan
• European Aviation Club, Chairman, Rigas Doganis
• European Commission, Director General for Mobility and Transport, Henrik Hololei
• IAG, CEO, Willie Walsh