ACI EUROPE Director General shares his key takeaways from the ECAC-EU Dialogue in Valencia

The European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) – EU Dialogue took place in Valencia on 23-25 October, addressing sustainability in all its dimensions: social, environmental and economic. ACI EUROPE Director General, Olivier Jankovec reports on his key takeaways from this important event.

As is customary, the ECAC-EU Dialogue was a great opportunity to engage with Civil Aviation Authorities from 44 countries and the European Commission – along with our partners Airlines for Europe (A4E), European Regions Airline Association, Aerospace, Security and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD) and CANSO.

Two crucial enablers of our transformation

One of the front line matters for the community gathered in Valencia was the daunting transformation challenge faced by aviation – truly nothing like the (many) challenges we have faced in the past. It is about earning our license to operate and safeguarding the tremendous societal benefits of air connectivity.

Two factors will decide about our ability to succeed in overcoming this challenge. Namely, we need to move away from the traditional ‘value chain’ concept/approaches (which inevitably lead conversations to how we should “divide the pie”) to a more inclusive and cooperative ‘eco-system’ concept/approaches (how we “keep and grow the pie” together). And secondly, we need policy and regulations to effectively enable decarbonisation without hurting connectivity.

In this regard, the EU Fit for 55 is good – but not good enough. Unless we find ways to bridge the price gap between SAF and conventional fuels, connectivity will suffer – especially for the regions and countries at the periphery of the EU. This also means that cohesion and territorial inequality is bound to suffer – with the risk of further fuelling a backlash against climate action.

How do we explain to people living in Catania, Heraklion or Plovdiv that they will be less connected – and even worse, that it will be become cheaper to fly to Monastir, Marrakech or Hurgada rather than to their location?

The SAF allowance mechanism seeks to address this, but more is needed, both at EU and national level.

Ultimately, ENERGY is the crucible of our transformation

Decarbonising aviation will require access to massive volumes of green energy. We need the EU and Governments to position our sector as part of the clean energy transition. That means we as industry also need to forge relationships with a full range of new stakeholders…

INVESTMENT is the other side of the coin – with requirements in excess of €820 billion for the industry to deliver on our Destination 2050 roadmap. We simply cannot finance this alone. We need more EU financial support and continued access to multilateral financial institutions and the financial markets.

Finally, our transformation also involves climate adaptation and a wider agenda for resilience.

This is also where the workforce is critical – in terms of securing new expertise/skills and quality. Demographics and changed expectations are not necessarily on our side – and as Josef Maurer puts it: “there is no shortage of labour, there is a shortage of skilled jobs”.

Many thanks to David Benito Astudillo, the Director General for Civil Aviation in the Spanish CAA and the Spanish Presidency of the EU for their hospitality – as well as to Marco Troncone, CEO of Aeroporti di Roma for raising the airport flag with me over these past 2 days.