Aviation to change rapidly, heading towards 'golden decade of opportunity': Malaysia Airlines CEO

Malaysia Airlines CEO Peter Bellew, speaking at the CAPA Australia Pacific Aviation & Corporate Travel Summit, said (01-Aug-2017) he believes the aviation industry will "be shaped by people who have nothing to do with the industry" over the next 10 years, leading to "a golden decade of opportunity". Mr Bellew said developments in renewable energy, batteries and autonomous vehicles will lead to "a sea change" in the price of fuel and the introduction of autonomous technologies in aircraft. Mr Bellew predicted "an inflection point" in the usage of oil around 2019/20, after which the price of oil will stabilise at USD30 to USD35 per barrel, stating: "Oil demand will drop. It is going to happen". In addition to the potential use of autonomous systems, Mr Bellew noted the rapid development of performance based navigation, delivering shorter routes and more efficient use of airspace, and improvements by aircraft manufacturers in using aircraft data for predictive maintenance. He also said "selling seats is going to become much easier from a technology point of view", noting progress in the development of chat bots and voice search and predicting a drop in distribution costs. On the rapid rate of change, Mr Bellew said: "If we don't keep up with it as an industry we will have our bread and butter stolen by the technology companies".