European Regions Airline Association

The next Industry Affairs Group (IAG) meeting will focus on the upcoming revision of the EU legislation on Air Passenger Rights (Regulation 261/2004). The event will represent an invaluable opportunity for ERA members to meet and discuss with key European Regulators, in view of a likely legislative proposal expected to be issued by the Commission by the end of this year.

ERA's Regional Airline Conference (RAC) in Porto has concluded with calls for the industry to strive harder to get its message across to politicians and legislators in Brussels. The conference, with the theme 'Regions at Risk' served to illustrate to those present - including representatives of the European Commission - that many of Europe's regions rely heavily on air transport. Many remote areas with difficult terrain and weather conditions can thrive with air transport links, but quickly wither without it.

George Mitselos, Chief Operating Officer and Accountable Manager at Olympic Air and Luiz Plácido Lapa, Chief Executive Officer at PGA-Portugália Airlines have been elected by Regular Airline members to the ERA Board in the recent Board Elections.

ERA member Innovata,LLC, a travel technology specialist, and FlightStats, a leader in global flight information services, have announced this week a strategic collaboration in the development of new products and services that blend Innovata's flight schedules database with FlightStats' flight status database.  The collaboration is aimed at travellers, application developers, and any travel and aviation-related company that need the most accurate and flexible web services and web-based tools for travel planning and status updates.

The European Commission has opened a public consultation on the proposed regulatory approach for a revision of the SES Performance Scheme.  The consultation addresses the second reference period (RP2, starting 1 January 2015) and beyond. The closing date of the Consultation is 18 June 2012.