[Avionics Today 09-25-2014] For the fourth consecutive year, the Association of European Airlines (AEA) held a networking event in the European Parliament. The Sept. 24 event was hosted and attended by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) with parliamentary assistants and CEOs of AEA member airlines also attending. Together, the groups discussed key European aviation topics such as consumer rights, airport capacity, the urgent need for a Single European Sky (SES), safety and security, and the role of Europe’s airlines in a globalising world.
AEA’s President Temel Kotil and AEA’s CEO Athar Husain Khan presented AEA’s blueprint for the future “Flightpath 2019.” They urged the MEPs to take a more holistic approach toward aviation, to adopt smarter regulation, to reduce the regulatory burdens European airlines face and to secure a level playing field, both in Europe and between Europe and the other regions of the world.
“We look forward to initiating a dialogue with the new members of the European Parliament and the European Commission about these crucial topics”, said Khan. “It is by working together with the Parliament and the Commission that we can develop an integrated European aviation policy and secure a sustainable European air transport industry that can fully contribute to Europe’s much needed economic growth and mobility. The decisions taken by this generation of regulators and policy makers will shape the industry — for better or for worse — well into the future.”