Aviadev Insight Europe

This is the second part of my discussion with Pete. In the previous episode we talked about his aviation journey, the transition process from a route development role at LCY to Managing Director position at NQY and about the once in a lifetime experience of organizing the arrivals and departures of various international delegations for the G7 summit earlier this year. Today we are going to talk about the recovery process at Cornwall Airport Newquay, where is the airport now in terms of its network, why Pete and his team even had to say "no" to some airlines that wanted to come to Newquay, what´s Newquay´s approach towards sustainability and how Pete sees the future of this regional airport.

Pete Downes is a managing director at Cornwall Airport Newquay. We´ve all had experienced interesting 18  months to say the least, but what Pete himself and together with his team at Newquay Airport went through is just fascinating. Our discussion was a bit longer than usually, so I decided we´ll split it into two episodes. So this is part one of the interview with Pete where we discuss his aviation journey, the transition process from a route development role at London City Airport to the managing director position at Newquay and I couldn´t miss the opportunity to ask Pete about the G7 summit and how was the experience like for the whole team to take care of the Air Force One and the other international delegations landing in Cornwall.

Our guest today is Juliana Kiraly, Marketing Manager Europe at Embraer. Juliana has already enjoyed many years at Embraer working on several different positions. In the interview we covered several interesting topics such as the recent certification of the Embraer E2-190 for steep approach at London City Airport, project of the new turboprop aircraft which Embraer is developing and also how they approach sustainability at Embraer.

In this interview with AviaDev Europe´s Managing Director Juraj Toth, Nick Ashton, Head of Partnerships and Industry Affairs at DOHOP shares his personal journey through which he developed true passion for creating partnerships and connections within the aviation world. Inevitably, he ended up at DOHOP where he can work even closer with various industry palyers using virtual interlining and intermodality as some of the solutions for better future for the whole travel ecosystem.

Ferenc Kis works as a business development director at RSK Group, an environmental consultancy firm from UK. Prior to that Ferenc spent 8 years at Budapest Airport developing and executing airport´s sustainability strategy as head of environmental protection. Naturally, we spoke about sustainability a lot, especially where it links to aviation and Ferenc´s experience. We discussed NetZero2050, hydrogen vs. electric and other related topics. Especially airport managers can find a lot of inspiration in this episode in case they are considering making their airport business carbon neutral.

This time I spoke with Becca Rowland, partner at MIDAS Aviation, which is the engine behind AviaDev Consult a boutique consultancy we created together. The team at MIDAS Aviation recently prepared a report which is titled No Blue Skies. What Becca and her colleagues are saying is that the demand for air travel is not likely to pick up until the second half of the year, at the earliest. So we discussed not just the outcomes of the report but also the reasoning behind it and what are Becca´s expectations about recovery.

This is a recording of the fourth episode of SkyHeroes - the aviation talkshow brought to you by AviaDev where 3 of our industry experts share their open opinions on hot aviation topics in a light way, sometimes controversial, sometimes not completely politically correct, sometimes also funny. But if we can still laugh, even in these difficult times, it means we are still alive, right? This time our experts were John Grant, Hans Jorgen Elnaes and Max Oldorf and the topics we were discussing included: Norse Atlantic Airways saying “Low-cost long-haul is back!” Revival of Alitalia. Looks like Norwegian will make it through this summer. But at what costs? Will European ULCCs be in a stronger position than anybody else after this summer?

This time I had great discussion with two members of the team at FoxATM: Elena Skalovskaia, Business Development Manager and Aviation Consultant and Vincent Lambercy, freelance air traffic management consultant. Elena and Vincent shared with us not just their personal aviation journeys and the background of FoxATM, but also a very interesting story of how they started to work together. There are some insightful lessons there especially for young aspiring aviators but also for those of us who´ve been with the industry for a couple of years or so. Then the main topic we touched was the ATM triangle where airlines, airports and ATM providers are not always on the same page. Last but not least, I also asked Elena and Vincent about the project of Single European Sky and why is it so important.

Our guest today is Thomas Reynaert, managing director at A4E - Airlines for Europe, an airline association with headquarters in Brussels. In the interview Thomas shared with us the story of A4E – how and why it was founded back in 2016. 5 years later A4E represents a very strong industry voice covering around 70% of European Air traffic. The major topic of our discussion with Thomas was Destination2050 – an initiative with the ultimate goal to reach net zero carbon emissions from European aviation by 2050. A4E is one of the industry players behind this project and Thomas shared with us why he thinks it is not just important and challenging but also a very realistic task.

For this very special episode we have a very special guest: the one and only Miguel Angel Perez, Brand and markets director at Visit Valencia. Miguel was our very first guest on the show back in May 2018, so almost 3 years ago. Today we have him back on to discuss what´s behind the strategy for sustainable tourism development in Valencia, what does it mean for Valencia as a destination to be recognized as the healthiest city in the world to live in and what are Miguel´s expectations about the upcoming summer season. A very special thanks to all the guests that have been on the show since May 2018 and a massive thank you to you: our audience for joining us on our journey, for your valuable feedback and simply for being with us as we support European aviation community.

Today I had the opportunity to talk to Matteo Bonechi, CEO of a new Italian airline EGO Airways. It´s exciting times for the whole team there as they are getting ready to launch their operations in a couple of days, on the 30th March 2021. With Matteo we discussed their strategy, business model, fleet, and plans for growth. Launching a new airline is enormously complex task in any period of time, but now in the middle of pandemic I can not even imagine how difficult it must be. But Matteo seems to be very enthusiastic and if there´s something we need right now it is enthusiasm, positivity and new fresh energy.

This is a recording of a brand new format we introduced at AviaDev: SkyHeroes. SkyHeroes is the aviation talkshow where 3 of industry experts share their open opinions on hot aviation topics in a light way, sometimes controversial, sometimes not completely politically correct, sometimes funny. But if we can still laugh, even in these difficult times, it means we are still alive, right? This time our experts were John Grant, Sean Mendis and Max Oldorf and the topics we were discussing included: The return of 737 MAX European Court decided that state aid to AirFrance and SAS was not discriminatory New airlines on the rise in Africa Turkish Airlines taking the leading position on the global market It was a fascinating discussion. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

This is a recording of a live interview Juraj Toth did with Dirk Singer on 23 February 2021. Dirk works as a Research Director at Simpliflying. He produces daily newsletter with updates on how aviation, travel and tourism are responding to the ongoing pandemic, what measures are here to stay, how travel will look like in the part vaccinated world and other related topics. Dirk is one of the very few people out there following the implications of the pandemic on air travel very closely from the very beginning. In the interview guys discussed everything from vaccination, to testing and digital health passports and how all of this will reflect on the way summer 2021 will look for airports, airlines, destinations and general public. If you haven´t done it yet, you can subscribe here to receive newsletter from Dirk with daily updates on air travel in a part vaccinated world.  

This is a recording of a brand new format we introduced at AviaDev: SkyHeroes. SkyHeroes is the aviation talkshow where 3 of industry experts share their open opinions on hot aviation topics in a light way, sometimes controversial, sometimes not completely politically correct, sometimes funny. But if we can still laugh, even in these difficult times, it means we are still alive, right? This time our experts were John Grant, Hans Jorgen Elnaes and Max Oldorf and the topics we were discussing included: New strategy for Norwegian Emirates and Etihad one of the first airlines in the world to trial IATA Travel Pass Wizz Air finally launching its Abu Dhabi adventure Government support for the airports It was a fascinating discussion. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

My guest today is René Armas Maés, Regional Partner Latin America at MIDAS Aviation.  Recently the team at MIDAS have created an online course titled Tourism Restart and Recovery Plan. As René explained in the interview, the course is aimed at those working in governments, official tourism boards and associations, tourism businesses and other key players in the tourism eco-system. It provides the tools and essential guidance to understand the opportunities and challenges the tourism industry is facing, and explains how to execute a comprehensive tourism recovery plan. And here comes a very interesting thing: MIDAS Aviation is providing a 25% discount code on the online course to all the AviaDev community. Just click here, register your details and type in the code in the next step. Oh, and what´s the code? I mention it at the very end of the episode :)

Charlotte Hardenbol works as a Head of Programs and Solutions at the Dutch company SkyNRG, the pioneer and global leader for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) solutions with a mission to make SAF the new global standard.     In the interview Charlotte explained how important the support of the Refuel EU initiative was in setting up a new Alcohol to Jet facility on which SkyNRG cooperates with US company Lanzatech and their daughter company Lanzajet. Charlotte also introduced new exciting initiative called BOARD NOW which is a way of SkyNRG inviting everybody to join the movement of scaling up the SAF production and make it widely available.

We´re starting new year of AviaDev Insight Europe Podcast with a former member of the AviaDev team Ged Brown. Ged runs his own business, Low Season Traveller, in something what´s possibly the worst time ever to start a new business in this sector. While talking to Ged I was thinking about a famous quote attributed to Winston Churchill, which goes like this: "Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." The energy and passion which is still in Ged´s voice despite all the negative storm himself, his business and the whole sector has been through is impressive and very contagious indeed. Enjoy the episode about the travel industry, the key takeaways from the horrible year 2020 and some rays of hope for better future.

In this year´s last episode I spoke to my boss and friend, CEO & Founder of AviaDev, Jon Howell. We discussed the main reasons AviaDev as a business survived this devastating year, what were the hardest challenges to overcome and what we have learned, what were the highlights of the year for us, some personal silver linings and what we expect 2021 will bring. Thank you everyone for your support, for listening to the podcast and we shall see you in 2021, which can only be better. 

After 11,5 years of working for Budapest Airport, most of that time as a CCO, Kam Jandu has left Budapest on 15 December 2020. But couple of days prior to that I got the chance to talk to him and also to ask him some very interesting questions submitted in advance by members of our community. The interview is really great and Kam shared lots of his wisdom, great experience and also one little secret: he once made a pizza for Whitney Houston! 

My guest today is Kevin Cullinane, Head of Communications at Cork Airport. Despite enormous negative impact of the pandemic on the whole aviation sector in Ireland, Kevin still sees a silver lining. Government´s strict position on protecting the health of the nation paid its dividends as Ireland has one of the lowest infection rates in Europe. Recently government also recognized the massive challenges the sector has to face. Kevin shared with us how they plan to invest those EUR 22M they will receive from the state next year. Most importantly, despite the ongoing pandemic, Cork Airport still supports the economy of this open and global city with vital connectivity to strategically important destinations, demonstrating the crucial role regional airports play and will play in the economic recovery. As mentioned at the end of the episode, let me invite you to our online events, we have 3 of them ready for you before Christmas. Firstly, tomorrow, on Friday 11th December at 10:00 UTC we will be recording a live po