AIA And ASD Reaffirm Trans-Atlantic Industry Cooperation In Wide-Ranging Discussions

Industry leaders from the Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD) and the Aerospace Industries Association of America (AIA) exchanged views on how to expand their close collaboration in a wide variety of areas during a meeting at the Farnborough International Airshow Tuesday morning.

CEOs of some of the largest and most influential aerospace companies on both sides of the Atlantic discussed ongoing efforts among manufacturers, operators and national aviation authorities to come up with an international standard for operations near volcanic ash. CEOs affirmed support for continued research and testing of volcanic ash effects. However, until real-time, calibrated ash detection systems are aboard aircraft, manufacturers continue to recommend avoidance of visible ash.

Concerning air traffic management systems, CEOs agreed that a commitment to interoperability between the future European and U.S. systems, SESAR and NextGen respectively, should be made as early as possible via collaboration between industry and aviation authorities on both sides of the Atlantic. To that end, CEOs concurred that industry and regulators should engage proactively in a coordinated effort to ensure ATM technology harmonization.

Additional topics discussed during the dialogue included export control modernization in the United States and Europe, mitigating the environmental impact of aviation and expanding industry commitment to ethical business practices.

“This meeting was extremely productive, and we have set a clear course of action to meet these very important challenges,” Scott Donnelly, Chairman of the Board of Governors, AIA and President & CEO of Textron said. “We look forward to even closer cooperation with our European partners on these issues in the future.”

Pier Francesco Guarguaglini, President of ASD and Chairman & CEO of Finmeccanica, agreed. “Transatlantic cooperation is essential to tackle environmental and technological challenges that are common to the US and the European aerospace industries,” he said.

FMI: www.aia.org, www.asd-europe.org