AVIATION


WILLIE WALSH


SINGLED OUT JUST 20 CONTROLLERS IN MARSEILLE FOR CRIPPLING MOST OF THE MEDITERRANEAN


of traffic”. Eurocontrol’s “most likely scenario” is for traffic growth of 1.9 per cent a year – a leap of 53 per cent by 2040 to an annual total of 16.2 million flights; with four countries, the UK, Turkey, France and Germany, seeing an extra 3,000 flights per day. “In our most likely scenario, there won’t be enough capacity for approximately an extra 1.5 million flights or 160 million passengers in 2040,” Brennan warns. “We need to address the issue as a matter of urgency.” In its report Challenges of Growth, Eurocontrol states that even without these 1.5 million unaccommodated flights, the number of “Heathrow-like” airports operating near capacity for much of the day rises from six in 2016 to 16 by 2040. It adds: “In particular, the number of flights delayed by one to two hours increases by a factor of seven, which means around 470,000 passengers each day delayed by one to two hours in 2040, compared to around 50,000 today.” The report concludes: “It will be a challenge to provide an adequate quality of service, day in, day out, in these circumstances.” Unless a solution is found, it may be that business travellers of the future will need to seek alternatives to face-to-face meetings. Meanwhile, A4E is backing an ambitious plan that might solve some of the capacity and industrial action issues once and for all – a project known as the European Upper Information Region Study – effectively a permanent “highway in the sky” without air traffic control borders that will allow aircraft to fly above affected airspace.


Willie Walsh, chief executive, IAG


82 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2018 buyingbusinesstravel.com


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