The aerospace industry is “fighting back” against critics who say it is not moving fast enough to address the climate challenge by demanding governments and regulators step up to support companies as they work towards ambitious sustainability goals, said Alan Peaford MBE, FINN editor-in-chief.

Speaking from the Bahrain International Airshow in November, he said: “We can see some of the issues where the industry is fighting back a bit better.

“We saw a session with the chief executives of Gulf Air, Air Arabia and Royal Jordanian where they’ve been talking very much about [the need] to make governments understand that the aviation industry needs initiatives to enable it and support it in order to be able to deliver sustainability goals.

“Sustainability is of course at the heart of everything we’re doing. Only 2 per cent of the emissions are from aviation. It’s a big battle to fight.”

Interoperability

He added that interoperability had emerged as a defining theme of the airshow, as regional players sought to collaborate on issues including national security.

“If you look at the F16s here with the UAE, with Saudi Arabia, with the Bahrain forces, what we’ve seen is those air chiefs getting together and talking about working together against common threats,” he said.

“You’re beginning to see things like defence forces sharing airspace to be able to to protect their nations, to put common platforms together to be able to work and that is the real benefit of this show, because the manufacturers are here as well and are also having those informal conversations that takes the industry forward.”
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