European transport commissioner Siim Kallas recently presented Flightpath 2050, a report prepared by a group of high-ranking air transport executives in the European Union that sets research priorities and ambitious industry goals for 2050. In their foreword, Kallas and research commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn endorsed the report’s conclusions and therefore seemed to put more emphasis on economic performance and passenger experience than environmental issues. Yet, many have characterized Flightpath 2050 as a successor to the vision for 2020 set in 2001 by the Advisory council for aeronautics research in Europe (Acare).
Based on 2009 figures, aeronautics supports about 500,000 jobs in the EU. Revenues total more than €100 billion ($140 billion). Industry leaders expect those numbers to grow in proportion to aviation’s predicted expansion. The “high-level group on aviation research,” created in December last year and including personalities from Airbus, Rolls-Royce, KLM, Munich Airport, Shell and Thales, among others, foresees global traffic reaching 16 billion passengers in 2050, compared with 2.5 billion this year.
