By Inês Rebelo
The traditional ACI EUROPE New Year’s Reception in the European Parliament brought together over 150 representatives from the EU institutions and the aviation industry on 22 January. The event was kindly hosted by MEPs Inés Ayala Sender (Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats) & Wim van de Camp (Group of the European People’s Party) – both influential members of the Committee on Transport & Tourism of the European Parliament. ACI EUROPE provided an overview of the burning issues the airport industry is facing in the year ahead. In his speech at the gathering, the President of ACI EUROPE and President & CEO of Munich Airport, Dr. Michael Kerkloh, highlighted the most pressing issues of the day for airport CEOs, namely Brexit, malicious use of drones, ATM reform, lack of airport capacity and the need for private investment.
Wim van de Camp, Member of the European Parliament, & Dr Michael Kerkloh, President of ACI EUROPE and President & CEO of Munich Airport.
Birgit Otto, COO of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, & Robert Sinclair, CEO of London City Airport.
Niall MacCarthy, Managing Director of Cork Airport & Vice-Chair of the ACI EUROPE Regional Airports Forum; Deirdre Clune, Member of the European Parliament, & Dalton Philips, CEO of daa.
Philippe Merlo, Director ATM at EUROCONTROL, & Angela Gittens, Director General of ACI World.
Kata Cserep, Vice President, Airports of ICF; Filip Cornelis, Director for Aviation at Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport of the European Commission, & Jörg Meinke, Head of Lufthansa Group EU Liaison Office.
Anna Vasila, Industrial Affairs Supervisor at Athens International Airport, & Thomas Woldbye, CEO of Copenhagen Airports AS.
Karen Dee, CEO of Airport Operators Association (AOA); Robert Sinclair, CEO of London City Airport; Morgan Foulkes, Deputy Director General of ACI EUROPE, & Jeff Bevan, Policy & Public Affairs Officer at Airport Operators Association (AOA).
Tanja Grobotek, Director of Europe Affairs of CANSO, & Stefania Nikolova-Tsankova, Senior Expert ATM Procedures at EUROCONTROL.
Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport Company, & Regula Dettling-Ott, Chair of the Performance Review Body (PRB) of the Single European Sky.
Michael O’Connor, Environment Manager at Athens International Airport & Chair of the ACI EUROPE Environmental Strategy Committee; Mikko Viinikainen, Vice President of Sustainability & Environment of Finavia Corporation & Vice-Chair of the ACI EUROPE Environmental Strategy Committee, & Ron Van Manen, Head of Unit – Programmes/Operations at the Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking.
