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ERA GENERAL ASSEMBLY IN INTERLAKEN

Mike Ambrose, Director General of the European Regions Airline Association (ERA), made his view quite plain. "The slot auctions planned by the EU Commission are manipulating the market. The EU would do better to make the airport capacity required available, instead of using inappropriate means to resolve the capacity problem."

A shortage of slots, rising air traffic control charges and a general chaos resulting from a constantly changing plethora of European and national regulations are only a few aspects which are making life difficult for the European regional airlines. Despite this, the ERA was able to look back on an extremely impressive 20-year history at its recent General Assembly in Interlaken, Switzerland.

From five airlines flying a total of 16 aircraft in 1980, today 80 airlines operate 1,270 aircraft and employ a workforce of 44,000. Yet the aim of the ERA has remained unchanged, to provide a powerful forum for safeguarding the interests of the supposedly weak and small regional "lone fighters". For this reason the annual assembly of the ERA has over the years grown into an important barometer for the regional sector in Europe.

Today the regional airlines stand at a crossroads: should they grow with the market, in which case sooner or later they will need strong partners and may risk losing their independence, or should they remain small and establish themselves in more or less lucrative market niches where there is less prospect of growth? Obviously this is not an easy decision, since only around half of all ERA members are currently flying at a profit, as the Chairman explained.

However, it is largely external factors, notably the increased strength of the dollar, that are responsible for this state of affairs, for many regional jets originally purchased or leased in dollars have increased in cost by up to a third due to changes in the exchange rate. This means that conversion of fleets from turboprops to regional jets is beyond the means of many airlines, even if individual companies, such as Rheintalflug, were able to report a substantial increase in bookings following the replacement of turboprops by jets, in this case the Embraer ERJ 145, at Interlaken.

Naturally this is welcome news to manufacturers such as Fairchild Dornier and Embraer, which were both presenting cabin mock-ups of their latest regional jets in the exhibition area. Embraer president and chief executive, Mauricio Botelho, took the opportunity of the ERA General Assembly to announce in person the launch customer for the 44-seat ERJ 140, American Eagle, which is simultaneously converting 66 options for the ERJ 135 to the larger ERJ 140 variant, thus launching the new series. The Brazilian manufacturer offers a sophisticated array of jets of different sizes on a modular basis, enabling it to respond especially flexibly to the US "scope clauses".

These refer to upper limits set in agreements with pilots' unions on the number of seats regional airlines may operate on aircraft before they have to pay mainline crew pay scales. In Europe ceilings on the maximum permissible size of aircraft are often higher, typically around 70 seats, which is why there is more interest in greater seat capacity over here. Another difference between Europe and the USA is the fact that the Europeans increasingly also fly point-to-point, i.e. from one regional airport to another, whereas in the USA the main role of the regionals is to provide pure feeder services into the hubs. In America turboprops and jets are often employed in parallel, whereas in Europe regional jets are generally viewed as a replacement for the turboprops.

A transformation has also taken place in European cockpits, where mechanical knobs and dials are giving way to modern glass cockpits in the regional sector as well. This requires a lot more aircrew training, something which in the past only the major carriers had to worry about. Augsburg Airways President and ERA member Olaf Dlugi announced the solution his company is to adopt in future as a means of keeping down training and conversion costs: instead of relying on booking expensive simulator hours in European capital cities, which are often even more expensive, Augsburg Airways plans to train their 134 pilots, together with their mechanics, in their own Dash-8-300 training centre. Combined with computer-workstations, this will enable the airline above all to provide cost-effective basic instruction and orientation training at its home base before having to resort to the expensive simulator sessions.

Finally, at the end of an exciting few days in Switzerland, the ERA once again announced the winners of its Airline of the Year Award. The awards were presented in person by the President of the Swiss Confederation, Adolf Ogi.

The Bronze award went to the Greek regional pioneer, Aegean Airlines, which would be happy to serve international routes from Athens with its ATRs and Avro Jets if the Greek government would only allow it to.

The Silver was awarded to the well-known and fast-expanding Eurowings from Germany, and the Gold was won by Skyways. The Swedish airline, a partner of SAS, has succeeded in expanding its ERJ 145 services on regional routes and has also made its entry into the international market.

Finally, Crossair president Moritz Suter, who has energetically accompanied the development of ERA from its beginnings to today, was made an honorary president of the society.

From page 34 of FLUG REVUE 12/2000