Aviadev Insight Europe

This is our episode no. 89. and it´s a very special one. The reason I´m saying is special is that I don´t have just one guest. I have two: Max Oldorf and Thomas Jaeger and they are the founders of ch-aviation. On today´s show they shared a lot of stories from the history of this company which early beginnings go back to 1998. Some of the stories are incredible, some are even hard to believe. But one thing is certain: what ch-aviaiton is built on is pure love for the aviation. And I guess in these difficult times, we need to get a reminder every now and then about how great our industry is and that it´s many times really fun to work in.

Jan Palmer is the CEO & Chairman of the management board at Xfly. Back in October this year, Jan was elected also as the President of the European Regions Airline Association. So we naturally spoke about the future of European regional aviation in the post pandemic world. Jan also explained the business model of Xfly being the dedicated capacity provider which is something very common in the US, but not that much in Europe.

My guest today is Andreas Slettvoll, CEO & founder at Chooose. Chooose is a Norwegian company that delivers solutions making climate action available for everyone. Recently Wizz Air partnered with Chooose so travellers flying Wizz Air can now offset their carbon footprint using Chooose. Andreas explained carbon offsetting is not the only one solution for climate change – it´s just one of several tools enabling us to act now. There were also two words Andreas deliberately used a lot – “frictionless” and “transparency” as they are crucially important in what Chooose does. Last but not least, Andreas is convinced that shaming is a terrible way for driving change so we definitely shouldn´t be ashamed of flying. If you want to offset your carbon footprint using individual plan by Chooose, you can do that here.  

My guest today is Marja Aalto, Senior Specialist in Aviation at Visit Tampere. Marja explains what makes Tampere Airport now the 2nd busiest in Finland, how does the cooperation between Visit Tampere and Finavia look like and what you can expect when you visit this charming city. By the way, did you know Tampere is considered as the world sauna capital? Neither did I :)

Máté Bence Tóth works as a Key Account Manager for the Travel Content Acquisition team at Kiwi.com. In addition to that, Máté and his 2 friends have their own aviation podcast in Hungarian language, called Hetes Terminal. And thanks to this, Mate was able to experience a truly historical event – long awaited opening of new Berlin Brandenburg Airport, first hand in Berlin couple of days ago. Today Mate shares with us not just his impression from the opening ceremony, but also his experience from the airport itself.

My guest today is Andrew Charlton, MD at Aviation Advocacy, an independent aviation focused strategic consultant and true aviation industry geek. Even though Andrew has spent last 3 decades in the business, I have to admit I´ve just discovered him recently, as he is moderating Aviation HardTalk series for Eurocontrol where he interviews some of the most respected aviation leaders. We obviously touched on that a little bit and we also discussed how bad we are in promoting some of the miraculous solutions aviation industry has brought to the mankind. On the other hand, Andrew also described his critical views on the current environment and a lack of true leadership which would help us to move forward.

We actually already had Jennifer on the podcast exactly 2 years ago, in the episode 15. Back then we spoke about the historical Virgin Atlantic flight from Orlando to London Gatwick which was partly fuelled by the Sustainable Aviation Fuel produced by Lanzatech. In this episode I asked Jennifer what progress has been made in the last 2 years and how she expects the future will look like in the next ten years in terms of aircraft propulsion. Jennifer made some very interesting points to take away and to think about for all of us. 

My guest today is Max Oldorf, CCO at CH-aviation. Every now and then we get together with Max to discuss news from the world of commercial aviation. And that´s we did today. Max shares his thoughts on further fleet reduction and other developments at Lufthansa, new hydrogen concept presented by Airbus and finally IATA´s call for covid-testing of air passengers before departure.

My guest today is Cesar Pereira, new VP for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Embraer Commercial Aviation. Embraer has been a partner and supporter of AviaDev for a couple of years now and we are glad that the team of Embraer will be joining us also at the upcoming aviaDev Europe 2020 online event. Ahead of this event, I talked to Cesar who has just recently been appointed as Embraer´s new VP for the EMEA region.  Cesar shared with us his view on how the covid crisis has impacted Embraer, how Embraer has been supporting its customers in these difficult times and what are their plans in Europe with the Profithunter, also known as the crossover jet.

This is a very special episode as my guest Claus Raasted doesn´t have an aviation background. However, he is an exceptionally interesting guy and he will be also speaking at AviaDev Europe 2020 online event. Claus is a director at the College of Extraordinary Experiences. Today we´re not going to talk directly about our industry. However, everything we´ll be discussing is affecting also us working in aviation and we can certainly find inspiration in Claus´ words about how to stay resilient, how to create extraordinary experiences or how to approach storytelling in today´s world.

My guest today is Dirk Singer, Communications Director, Managing Editor at Airline Marketing Monthly at SimpliFlying. Dirk was on our show earlier this year but we talked about something completely different. Today we focus on testing against covid and why Dirk believes it is the number one thing that can potentially bring back to confidence in air travel. We discussed when we can expect to have widely available fast, reliable and affordable tests, if testing shall be mandatory and how vaccine can change the game in the long run. Don´t forget to subscribe to Simpli Flying´s insightful newsletter at https://simpliflying.com/. 

My guest today is Max Schintlmeister, an experienced airport manager who is now supporting regional airports as a consultant. Max shared his views on the future of regional airports in the “post-apocalyptic” aviation world significantly damaged by the pandemic. He explained why the airports need to reconsider their major roles within their regions and how they can develop new business ideas. Also, Max made an interesting statement about what makes him feel optimistic about the future of our industry, despite all the negatives it is going through at the moment.

My guest today is Arran Rice, the CEO & Founder of SimpleFlying.com, the world´s largest aviation news website and a proud media partner of AviaDev. Their goal is to provide a one-stop hub for all the key stories on commercial aviation, sharing the news in a simple, accessible way. On the show Arran shared with me what led him to launching SimpleFlying, how the early days of the business looked like, what is the most successful story on their website and much more. Arran also offers his advice to those dreaming about becoming an internet entrepreneur.

This is a recording of our 6th webinar which we did on the 30th June 2020. With John Grant from MIDAS Aviation and AviaDev Consult, Jeremy Robinson from Watson, Farley and Williams and Ged Brown from Low Season Traveller we discussed the future of the low cost business model in Europe in the light of new legislation announced in Austria which would technically set the minimum air fares to 40 EUR. Is it a good idea, is it a bad idea, is it sustainable to fly across the continent for a price of a latte, is it fair to interfere the competition with such rules? We have had a very juicy conversation about all these questions.

Managing Director of AviaDev Europe Juraj Toth interviews Plamen Atanasov, the CEO of Qazaq Air - a regional airline that operates domestic services in Kazakhstan using a fleet consisting purely of DeHavilland Canada Dash 8-400. During the interview, Plamen shared the story of Qazaq Air, how they maximised the time during lockdown to come back stronger, the three lesson the airline has learnt in the last 5 years and the 3 main ingredients for a successful regional airline. This interview was produced in cooperation with DeHavilland Canada, the manufacturer of the Dash 8 – 400, the world´s most advanced turboprop aircraft. 

In this very special episode, Tony Hallwood (Aviation Development Director at AviaDev Europe) is interviewing  Juraj Toth (MD at AviaDev Europe) about the upcoming 2020 event, which will take place on the 16-17 September online. Juraj shares some background information about why the event is moving online this year, what can delegates of the event expect, how the 1-2-1 meetings will be organized, what are AviaDev´s plans in Europe in 2021 and much more. Registration is open at www.aviadeveurope.online

My guest today is Martin Dichler, a freelance aviation journalist and a passionate avgeek. For the 19 years Martin was chairing a club called Friends of Vienna Airport (Flughafenfreunde Wien). Naturally with Martin we discussed all things Austrian aviation, recent developments on this very interesting market, situation about Lauda and its future, rapid Covid19 tests at Vienna Airport and we also touched the future of Austrian Airlines. Very lively and juicy conversation, enjoy!

My guest today is Shashank Nigam, a person with jet fuel in his veins. Shashank is the founder and CEO of SimpliFlying, one of the world´s largest aviation marketing firms and author of SOAR, a bestseller on airline marketing. Together with his team at SimpliFlying they have created a material titled The Rise of Sanitized Travel which details over 70 different areas in the passenger journey that are expected to either change or to be introduced from scratch, to restore confidence in flying after COVID-19 pandemic. You can download the full report here.

This is a recording of our fifth webinar which we did on the 28th  April 2020. For this webinar we partnered with Kiwi.com as guys at kiwi.com have developed a new interesting tool called Travel Market Radar and on the webinar they wanted to share more about how this tool can help the airports and destinations to prepare for the recovery. Our guests on the webinar were: Patrick Zeuner, head of airport partnerships at kiwi.com Wouer Veenstra, data products manager at Kiwi.com and Mate Ritter, airline development manager at Budapest Airport.

Massimo di Perna is a passionate aviation professional from Italy, with rich experience from different positions within the industry. Massimo recently wrote a very interesting article with his opinions and ideas on how the aviation industry in Europe should move forward in the post covid19 world. So we discussed his approach and I also asked for his opinion on blocking off the middle seat, rapid covid tests at the airports and when he expects passengers aircraft back in the air.