ERA Emissions Resolutions Passed
The European Regions Airline Association (ERA) reacted strongly to last week’s vote of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee to impose 100 percent auctioning of carbon permits for aviation by 2020, saying this will add a further €6 million a year for a typical regional carrier.
“Air transport’s problems are now vastly overshadowed by the larger economic crisis,” said Director General Mike Ambrose, speaking to the media at the Association’s annual General Assembly in Manchester. He criticized the Environment Committee (ENVI) vote for imposing additional burdens on an industry already crippled with soaring costs and reduced consumer confidence.
“The fact that more than 1,100 amendments to the mother directive were proposed without any form of impact assessment when so much is at risk – company survival, jobs, international access for Europe’s regions – is not just grossly unacceptable, it is thoroughly irresponsible,” said Ambrose. “States, regulators and politicians need to recognize that we are not far off from a situation in which investment in air transport development will cease because the cost of uncontrolled additional regulations will have changed the balance from prudent investment to lottery. Our challenge now is to make governments accept that aviation is an essential tool for helping to rebuild European economies.”
ERA members agreed a resolution calling on the European Commission, MEPs and European Council of Ministers to ensure that changes to EU Regulation 2003/87/EC (the “mother directive”) do not further amend the scheme for air transport already agreed by the European Parliament.

ERA Elects Bertomeu VP
Carlos Bertomeu, CEO, Air Nostrum was elected as vice president of the European Regions Airline Association (ERA). He succeeds Per Arne Watle who retired as president of Norwegian carrier Widerøe earlier this year.
Among the Regular (Airline) members, Michel Coumans, managing director of KLM Cityhopper and Manfred Helldoppler, president of Tyrolean Airways were both newly elected to the Board. They filled the vacancies arising from Bertomeu’s election as vice president, and Lorenzo Caporaletti of Volare who chose not to stand for re-election.
Stefan Wentjärvi, CEO, Blue1, Marc Lamidey, CEO, Brit Air, Manfred Brennwald representing Swiss European and Bryan Huxford, chair, Eastern Airways were all re-elected for another three year term.
In the Associate I category (Manufacturers), Stewart Cordner, deputy vice president sales and marketing BAE Systems was elected, replacing Rob Hearn of BAE Systems, who recently stepped down.
In the Associate III (Airport) category, Roland Wondolleck, managing director of Rotterdam Airport was re-elected for a further three-year term.

ERA Revises Emergency Handbook
ERA is stepping up its crisis management activities by publishing a revised Emergency Planning Handbook as part of a series of initiatives to support airlines making investments in crisis planning.
Launched at the association’s Contingency Planning Workshop in Manchester, the handbook is sponsored by worldwide disaster management experts, Kenyon International, whose CEO Robert Jensen co-chaired the workshop.
“Safety in our industry improves everyday,” said Jensen, “but accidents are still a fact of life. ERA should be commended for recognizing this reality by adopting and building on the Emergency Response Preparedness Standards (ERPS). This is a milestone for the industry, and through their action, ERA has better prepared its members to compassionately and professionally respond to a loss, protecting their business and taking care of its passengers.”
Designed to act as an aide-memoire for developing new or existing crisis planning procedures, the Handbook builds on ERA’s ERPS which were launched at the 2007 ERA General Assembly in Athens. It is an initiative that was submitted to, and supported by, the European Commission’s Director DGTREN Daniel Calleja-Crespo as an example of self-regulation by industry in this crucial area.
The association has also set up an online Crisis Planning Help Center for members and is considering the creation of a member Crisis Management Group.
“A comprehensive emergency response plan is a priority, not an option, for all airlines and airports. The wide range of issues that need to be taken into account, and the essential cascade of sensitive information to a large number of staff and external organizations, can seem daunting,” said Director General Mike Ambrose. “Focused advice from experienced experts in the field is invaluable for anyone establishing new procedures or revising existing ones.”

Aegean Takes ERA Gold
Aegean Airlines is the winner of the ERA’s Airline of the Year 2008/9 gold award, making it the second time the carrier has been presented with the prestigious award, and the fifth ERA accolade it has received in the last five years.
The Greek airline which previously won the award in 2004 and the Palme d’Or Honour in 2005, was presented with the trophy by ATR CEO Stéphane Mayer, the award sponsor, at the ERA annual awards dinner.
The Silver Award went to CityJet of Ireland, while the Bronze Award was won by Norwegian carrier, Widerøe’s Flyveselskap.
The judges noted Aegean Airlines’ listing on the Athens stock exchange in July 2007 as a major achievement, raising significant financing for future fleet development. Its strong net profit in the face of a deteriorating market climate and rising fuel prices, its addition of new, more environmentally efficient aircraft to its fleet, continued network expansion and a high level of customer satisfaction were other factors that impressed the judges.
The award was presented to Giovanni Matassa, commercial director, Thanos Pascalis, technical director and Costas Alexandrou, sales manager international. Aegean operates a fleet of nine A320s, two A321s, one Boeing 737-300s, nine B737-400 and six BAe Systems AVRO RJ 100 jets. The airline carried 5.2 million passengers in 2007.
Silver winner CityJet was commended by the judges for its clear business strategy allowing it to continue its bold and robust network expansion at London City Airport, and still achieve continued solid financial performance and profit development. CEO Geoffrey O’Byrne-White accepted the award.
Exemplary crisis management during the grounding of the SAS Q400 fleet, which led to enhanced public opinion, improved profits and sustained high performance levels, clinched Wideroe the bronze prize. Vice President Communication Richard Kongsteien received the award.
The judging panel comprises senior industry experts including past CEOs of European airlines and independent aviation journalists from a variety of European countries.
Era rounded out its awards by honoring Olaf Dlugi with the ERA Director General’s Commendation for services to the industry. The trophy was presented by Pat Ryan, director of operations of the Irish Aviation Authority which sponsors the award. “For more than two years, as chair of the SESAR project, Olaf has played a pivotal role in the biggest infrastructure project that international air transport has had to face worldwide,” said Ambrose. “His personal leadership skills have earned him the respect of all stakeholders and regulators. Real leadership can be described as making people who have no wish to go anywhere, enthusiastic to get to where they do not want to be. Olaf has been conspicuously successful in doing this.”

LCY Takes ERA Award
Citing the airport’s phenomenal 24 percent passenger growth in 2007, its efficiency of internal planning and service delivery processes that allow it to operate at 97 percent of its permitted capacity, London City Airport was named to receive the ERA’s Airport Achievement Award 2008/9. London City Airport handled just under three million passengers in 2007. It has 10 airlines serving 34 destinations across the UK and Europe and connections to the rest of the world through major European hubs.
It was also cited for its well structured performance partnership with its airline customers and its service-oriented approach to passengers, as key features of its success. Richard Gooding, managing director, was presented with the trophy by Alisdair Wright, sales director of award sponsor, SITA.
The ERA Airport Achievement Award recognizes an achievement or achievements which have had a positive impact on intra-European air transport operations. London City Airport previously won the ERA Airport of the Year Award in 2003 and the ERA Palme d’Or Honour for Sustained Excellence in 2004. It is judged by a panel of industry experts from throughout Europe.
In separate news, BAE Systems Regional Aircraft said that the BAe 146/Avro RJ accounts for 96 percent of all London City Airport jet scheduled traffic with eight airlines operating the 70-100 seat BAe 146/Avro RJ. The company also said that aircraft accounts for 54 percent of scheduled weekly departures and 70 percent of scheduled weekly seats, which includes turboprop traffic.
This expansion is set to continue with the launch of winter services BA CityFlyer using wet-leased BAe 146-200s from UK operator Flightline to operate two new schedules to Lyon (twice-weekly) and Geneva (four times weekly).
In addition Ireland’s CityJet is in the process of adding a further four Avro RJ85s to its existing fleet of 23 RJ85s, a significant number of which are operated from the downtown airport and serving multiple European destinations.
“BAE Systems first test flew and proved the operational integrity of the BAe 146 from London City in the late 1980s and the aircraft was cleared to operate commercially from the extended 1,199 meter runway, steep-approach airport in February 1992,” said Paul Stirling, senior vice president asset management for regional aircraft. “Since then the fortunes of the airport have been transformed as more operators have used our product to develop LCY services.”
Stirling added: “As regional airlines in Europe face increased competition from the low cost carriers, one way to achieve success is to identify niche routes where a fare premium can be applied to attract business-class traffic. There is no better example of this than London City Airport and, although it is more than 15 years since our product started flying commercially from the city centre airport, there remains no effective jet competitor today.”
The airlines operating from LCY are BA CityFlyer (RJ85/RJ100) with currently 163 weekly departures, Flightline (BAe 146-200 operating on behalf of BA), CityJet (RJ85) on behalf of Air France, Lufthansa Cityline (RJ85), Eurowings (BAe 146-200/300 on behalf of Lufthansa), Atlantic Airways (RJ85 on behalf of SAS), Swiss (RJ100), and Transwede (RJ70 on behalf of Air One and RJ70/85 on behalf of SAS).