One of the primary responsibilities of the European Regions Airline Association (ERA) is to do “everything possible to ensure that things do not get worse [for members] before they become better.” So said ERA policy and regulatory-affairs deputy director-general Simon McNamara at the group’s April 2010 conference in Edinburgh after two years of “most challenging trading conditions” had left European regionals flying through metaphorical clouds in an economic, commercial and regulatory storm.
But even as he spoke, a literal cloud of volcanic ash arrived overhead from the eruption of Mount Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland; immediate closure of vast areas of European airspace followed, grounding many regional-airline chief executives for days, while some–including the ERA secretariat–turned to long-distance international rail services.
Five months later, European airlines are working hard to establish procedures for addressing the financial effect of such crises, such as “grossly inappropriate” claims for passenger compensation under 2004 regulations that regional airlines have always opposed. The ERA sees this year’s experience as further confirmation that European Union states do not recognize the importance of air transport in providing links to the region’s outlying communities.
