A look at “Paris Air Forum 2018” by Dr. Barzantny, June 21, 2018 – Theme: “Connected aviation and smart territory”

Article by Dr. Cordula Barzantny
Alexandre de Juniac (CEO IATA) addressing the audience during the round table “How can Air Traffic that doubles every fifteen years be absorbed ?” with Angela Gittens, Director General of ACI World; Philippe Crebassa, VP ENAC and newly appointed Director Toulouse Blagnac Airport; Maurice Georges, Director of Air Navigation Services at DGAC, France.

Alexandre de Juniac (CEO IATA) addressing the audience during
the round table “How can Air Traffic that doubles every fifteen
years be absorbed ?” with Angela Gittens, Director General of
ACI World; Philippe Crebassa, VP ENAC and newly appointed
Director Toulouse Blagnac Airport; Maurice Georges, Director of
Air Navigation Services at DGAC, France.

The Paris Air Forum in its 5th edition since 2014 has the objective to highlight the changing relationships and processes of civil and military aeronautics and space as well as new balances of the
most dynamic and innovative international industrial sector. Created in 2014 by Aéroport de Paris, an initiative of Augustin de Romanet (CEO Groupe ADP), La Tribune and Forum Media, the Paris Air Forum brings together a succession of debates, conferences and keynotes involving personalities, decision makers and experts in the aerospace, defense and space sectors. The objective: to decipher the challenges of the present and of the future to better address the pressing issues of tomorrow. This time the event took place on 21 June 2018 at Arche de la Défense, Paris Nanterre.

As with every edition, the new generations are an integral part of this reflection with the presence of 38 of the most innovative startups in the Innovation Village. The bottleneck in logistics for a sector of high growth like air transport was already symbolized by the rather slow access by only two central and transparent elevators to the meeting space of Toit de la Grande Arche, evidently insufficient for the number of participants flowing in since the morning.

The important theme of this Paris Air Forum, the phenomenal growth of air transport, posits serious challenges since there will be soon around 16 billion passengers at horizon 2050. The sector will not be able to absorb such an exponential demand of air transport without new airport infrastructures, improved capacities and high performance systems for air traffic control as well as professional education and training (in industry, operations, maintenance and services…) adapted to such a growth.
Jean‐Christophe Tortora, President of La Tribune and Max Armanet, Director of the Air Forum and President of Forum Media have offered again an exciting professional event, for the first time at Toit
de la Grande Arche. The French Minister of Transports, Madame Elisabeth Borne, travelling with the French President to Brittany, sent her best welcome and announced the civil aviation challenges by video.
Augustin de Romanet underlines the important of transversality and innovation for smartly managing growth of air transport. He furthermore highlights digital developments and connectivity as well as
the importance of territories as the unavoidable facts for aeronautical progress as well as the space sector. He also reminds the audience to think and act on Europe and the European Union as well as
for her Defence.

The involvement of all stakeholders for infrastructure projects is crucial, like the public debate on the terminal CDG 4 G at Roissy Charles‐De‐Gaulle Airport, to find agreements and sustainable solutions.
Like the spirit of the Paris Air Forum, communication and personal encounters are the focus for air traffic developments, connected aviation and intelligent, smart territories. Innovative ideas are
integrated through the presence of aerospace start‐ups and young enterprises in the open space of the Innovation Village.

Parallel sessions with round tables, key notes and discussions offer insights and challenges of the present to better prepare the future. The debates are moderated by journalists of La Tribune,
Aerospatium, d’AeroDefénseNews, Reuters, and Le Monde. The various sessions pinpoint important aerospace issues and offer to meet all actors to identify possible solutions by encounters and
communication. The young generation participates with 38 start‐ups sharing their new ideas and solutions. They are the ones who open every session with resonant pitches, summarizing the
different product and service offers conceived by those young, innovative firms.

All day long, at least three parallel sessions talk about air transport (from the regional perimeter towards worldwide competition), the issues of cybersecurity including French and European highlevel
military representatives, and the challenges for airport infrastructures on the ground and air space management. Civil and military space as well as European Defense are discussed with their
technological challenges as well as the impact of drones and the New Space, uniting national and international distinguished participants. Sessions also treat supply chain organization for
manufacturing as well as connected aircraft and the challenges of digitalisation on the industry and operations.

One round table on “How can Air Traffic that doubles every fifteen years be absorbed?” reminded the audience by Alexandre de Juniac, (Director General and CEO of IATA) that the estimations foresee
more passengers than human beings living on Earth in 2024. He does not forget to underline that the aviation sector is so far, the only one which has taken an active engagement of CO2 emissions’
reduction across the whole value chain despite the growth!

Therefore, to achieve such progress, digital technologies and innovation are necessary to maintain aviation, evolving at such high speed, as a safe and secure mean of transport.
At the end of the day, the Paris Air Forum trophees of La Tribune are given to the most innovative start‐ups in the aeronautical sector. Regarding ideas, the future is already present, but there are still
the needed transformations to be implemented in organizations for the future and for which the Paris Air Forum represents the annual event deciphering the most important issues and fostering
aerospace encounters.

 

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