Video of the week - Airline boardroom thinking into how airlines can prepare for the new environment?

6 May, 2020

The suggestion that British Airways could end operations from London Gatwick Airport in the 'new normal' environment highlights that just about anything is now on the table in airline boardrooms as senior teams work to modify the shape, size and general all round look of the business to survive in a redefined marketplace.

We all can acknowledge that the airlines that emerge from this current global health crisis will be different from those that entered it at the start of the year. How different remains the big question? Another search through the Centre for Aviation video archives took us to the following CAPA TV film from May-2017 into how airlines prepare for the future.

Set up as a boardroom setting, the popular section of the Airline Leader Summit in the Republic of Ireland, generates good debate and insight into the subject matter. Here, under the stewardship of CAPA chairman emeritus, IAG, CEO, Willie Walsh; then Aeroflot deputy general director for strategy & alliances, Giorgio Callegari; European Commission, director general MOVE, Henrik Hololei; then Irish Aviation Authority, chief executive, Eamonn Brennan; and then Malaysia Airlines, group MD & CEO, Peter Bellew; discussed how airlines could prepare for a new environment.

The environment in question was 2025. "Whatever the status of disruption in the short and medium term, what can airlines do to prepare for a new environment which will exist in 2025? Creating a bridge to the future. Getting it right now will not just be optional, but a matter of survival - or not. As the old system dies, there will be casualties," CAPA said in its marketing of the session.

Giving us a short bubble away from the current Covid-19 pandemic, this video provides us with some positivity for the future. This board meeting explores the options available to airline managements, notably the shape of alliances and airline partnering, the role of equity acquisitions, how regulatory bodies will view JVs; can inter-governmental bilateral relations adapt fast enough to allow airlines the scope to prepare for the future.