Aviation International News senior correspondent Ian Goold has been involved in aerospace since 1964 and in aviation media for more than 40 years. He enjoyed a 20-year career at Flight International magazine, where he was latterly air-transport editor before turning freelance in 1993. A winner of the European Regions Airline Association Hank McGonagle award for excellence in aerospace journalism and a Royal Aeronautical Society Aerospace Journalist of the Year global&nbsp;award, he has edited or contributed to aerospace and aviation magazines, special publications, and websites in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America. Ian entered aerospace as an apprentice at the British Aircraft Corporation at Brooklands (Weybridge), where he worked on production and final assembly lines of the Vickers Super VC10, and BAC One-Eleven , and manufacture of Concorde major sub-assemblies. He subsequently graduated from the BAC Design Training School to work in the airframe structures drawing office (including design of international future projects, such as the Panavia Tornado multi-role combat aircraft) before joining Flight International in 1973. Apart from years of reading aircraft magazines and books, his first direct contact with aviation media had come during the early 1970s when he was involved at Brooklands with the Weybridge Man-powered Aircraft Group, which designed and built the tenth aircraft to fly under purely human power. As an aviation journalist, he has worked at more than&nbsp; 50 of the major biennial&nbsp;global and regional international aerospace industry shows at Le Bourget, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai (having missed attending only one "Farnborough" since 1960), plus innumerable NBAA, HAI, (U.S.) AOPA, and EBACE Conventions and ERA Assemblies. His favourite aircraft is the Hawker Hunter, of which – as a schoolboy – he heard hundreds make their first flights from Dunsfold, where also on September 24, 2013, he saw the penultimate landing of the VC10 (happily involving an example of which he had witnessed the maiden takeoff in 1970) a day before the last example made the design's final flight (unless, of course....).

Senior correspondent

Ian Goold

Regional operators in Europe are seeing slightly higher loads as they fly marginally longer sectors, according to the latest figures from the European Regions Airline Association (ERA). Comparing the first six months of this year with the same period last year, ERA noted that regionals traffic (passenger-miles) grew by 6 percent and capacity (available seat-miles) increased by 5.6 percent, for a small gain in passenger load factor (PLF). 
But while the number of seats increased by 4.2 percent, passenger volume grew by only 3.7 percent, apparently suggesting a slight decline in PLF. ERA attributes this anomaly to the way its statistics are calculated, using some monthly figures and some covering the whole report period, according to infrastructure and environment manager Lorna Reader.
After positive gains in the first three months of this year, PLF trends in the second quarter were less strong, with two of the three months seeing lower loads than a year earlier. ERA has not yet reported performance during the July to September period, which last year was the best period for member airlines.
With growth in seat numbers exceeded by that in capacity, European regionals achieved a 1.3-percent gain in average sector length. ERA members have seen average sector length grow from about 370 km (230 miles) 20 years ago to around 560 km (350 miles) last year. The greater distances being flown are also reflected in a 2.5-percent increase in average flight time.
The group reports that about four member airlines in 10 saw zero or negative growth in passenger numbers in the May to June period, an improvement on the first calendar quarter, in which about 44 percent had experienced no increase (or a decrease). About 12 percent of ERA carriers saw an increase of more than 20 percent in passengers in the second quarter, although overall passenger growth for all members declined steadily during the period to almost zero in June.
The average size of the equipment employed on ERA members’ routes continues to grow, with aircraft accommodating about 76 passengers compared with the 35-seat capacity of typical aircraft in 1988. 
While orders placed in the last two years or so suggest a trend toward increased use of turboprop power, there has not yet been any obvious change in the composition of the ERA fleet, which consists of more than 60 percent turbofan-powered airplanes. On the business side, ERA reports that average revenue of about E100 per passenger in the first half represents a reduction of about 2.2 percent over a year ago. The number of employees per aircraft has increased slightly, up from 30 in 2005 to 34 now, while the number of passengers carried per employee remains stable at 2,150 per year. 
At about 13 percent of total costs, the price of fuel has had a significant impact on ERA members, with airlines paying just over E800/block hour between April and June, or about 41 percent more than in 2007’s second calendar quarter. Environmental impact has also risen, according to ERA statistics: although members burned less fuel last year than in 2006, this year airlines are apparently consuming up to 20 percent more than last year at about 8.5kg/100 revenue passenger-km (30 pounds per 100 revenue passenger-miles).&nbsp;

ERA member airlines report increased 

Regional operators in Europe are seeing slightly higher loads as they fly marginally longer sectors, according to the latest figures from the European Regi

2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

AIN Products

SUBSCRIPTIONS

RESOURCES

ABOUT AIN