Has EU aviation policy failed to meet its overall objective of producing safe, affordable, convenient and efficient services for its customers?

IntroductionI dont agree the EU tune polity has failed to meet its overall objective of producing safe, affordable, convenient and effective service for its customer.Mega- polity, according to De (2011, p.22) is master constitution that deals with overall goals, certain basic assumption policy instruments and implementation strategies with the aim of typically large outmatch investments, and is divided as internal and external policy. In the EU beammanship manufacturing context, internal policy is meant to govern EU registered respiratory tracts whereas External governs non-EU registered air passages.The chief(prenominal) aim of EU is to achieve a safe, affordable, convenient and efficient service for consumers.To provide a safe, affordable, convenient and efficient services1. Internal Policyi. synthetic rubberEU established the European airwave Safety Agency (EASA) with the goal of ensuring civil air safety device for its member countries (European Commission, 2009). The agencys main task is to mark air transport is safe as well as sustainable. To achieve this all important(p) goal, the agency has developed some of safety and environmental rules that must be adhered to by all stakeholders. In addition, it constantly monitors implementation of these standards through regular inspections of member states adherence to the rules, as well as go technical support through cooking. Through EASA, EU regulates pilot and early(a) crew member training as well as issuance of licences for European pilots.The establishment of single aviation market has been a huge success in enabling the EU agencies to collaborate in monitoring safety policy implementations. For example, European Commission, European melodic phrase Safety Agency and Eurocontrol have collaborated under the pillar of safe aviation services to the passengers through licensing regulations. Other agencies involved in safety regulation are bailiwick civil aviation authorities, and safety inve stigation authorities, who work to incorporate all stakeholders, including aircraft manufacturers and airline companies, in safety measures. The agencies act under the jet safety rules, which enable them to do random safety inspections at any European airport.Statistics show that, despite the rise in traffic over the last two decades, EUs air safety initiatives have undefeatedly maintained high standards in terms of aviation safety (EASA Annual Safety Review).It must, however, be noted that despite the raft of security measures, the notion of zero take chances in aviation does not exist, and occasional cases of accidents may occur. In such cases, EU advises that thorough investigations is the beat out approach, as studies show that accidents do not occur as a result of single outlet but a combination of multiple prior events (Ferroff et al., 2012).ii. Freedom to establish & provide servicesEUs establishment of a single European airwave Market, from the initial 27 national air transport markets all over Europe, has created an atmosphere of success in terms of license to all markets. The initiatives were meant to step-up market access top every European carrier, with no restriction on capacity image no discrimination in terms of license provision across Europe tally freedom to provide services to the aviation industry Ensure operators freedom to pricing their product and services Ensure implement penalties on those who infringe on the proceduresThe increase in much choices has also seen the number of EU routes increase by 25 share from 1992 to 2011. The increased competition has led to 420 percent rise in intra-EU routes with more than two carriers over the same period (Zamarreno, 2012). Finally, the EU initiative led to rise in new entrants, which facilitated competition thus the emergence of market for low-cost air services, which currently account for 40 percent of EU aviation market.2. External Policyi. Market OpeningThe external aviation policy has been an intrinsic part of EUs strategy in effort towards greater flexibility, consistency and transparency in matters international civil aviation. To achieve these goals, EU has been gradually and consistently making and ratifying bilateral and multilateral agreements with other international aviation bodies outside EU. As such, EU has been carrying out is horizontal mandate of bringing the brisk bilateral and multilateral agreements into line with EU laws. They also identified the creation of a Common Aviation Area with neighbouring nations, including United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil and India among others as an important step towards realising sustainable growth. This realisation has led tooer 117 non-EU states accepting EU designation Close to 1000 bilateral aviation safety agreements have conformed to EU laws, which have translated into over 70 percent rise in EU air traffic several(prenominal) neighbouring countries willingly participate in a pan- European Commo n Aviation Area e.g. agreements with Morocco (signed in celestial latitude 2006) and Israel (signed in July 2012) among some(prenominal) other nations Comprehensive agreements with key partners such as United States, Canada and Brazil, which aims to open partners markets, removal of investment barriers, and converging regulations across borders Increased level playing field through adoption of common rules and standards that ensures greater aviation safety, efficient infrastructure, consumer nurseion and lower prices due to competition (Zmarreno, 2012). ii. Affordability and ConvenienceAn external policy has meant that EU citizens benefits from reduced prices and more travel offers resulting from competition between EU and international airlines. Moreover, every airline must up its game by offering fall apart services in terms of caliber and convenience to withstand competition.The European Union aviation industry employs more than five million plenty around the world and cont ributes 365 billion to the European GDP (Sandbag, 2012). In spite of the current economic crisis, it is intercommunicate that global aviation industry will continue to experience an average annual growth of 5 percent till 2030. When EU emphasises its commitment to external partnerships through their external aviation policies, their goal is to ensure barriers to growth is eliminated through removal of any limiting factor of investment (e.g. airline ownership). It must be noted that initial ownership of airlines were highly regulated, with governments restricting foreign ownership in what was cited as national security measures. However, the discriminatory approach to ownership was removed, thanks to EUs raft measures to increase fairness, allowing more openness in market access and competition. For example, EU has a general ownership rule that allows up to 49 percent foreign ownership of a European aviation company (European Commission, 2009). This is much better than the United St ates 25 percent of voting stocks restrictions to foreign ownership. Arguably, this arrangement has do EU aviation industry more attractive to external investors, hence the regions benefits from large economy of scale.iii. Environmental SafetyAviation industry is responsible for 2.5 percent of the total global carbon emission (Sandbag, 2012). This percentage rises to 4.9 percent of the total anthropogenic carbon effect if all the radiation components are intromitd. Put to context, this would make aviation industry the seventh largest carbon emitting country worldwide. The forecast from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) indicates that by 2036 carbon emissions from the industry alone will hit 300% compared to 2011 levels (Bows, et al., 2010).European Unions end to include aviation industry into its carbon market, with the introduction of Emission Trading Scheme (ETS), signalled their desire to protect the global clime. More importantly, EU member countries ensure d EU law has primacy over national law, hence big(a) the union broader power to control any form of environmental destruction that may emerge from a single countrys non-compliance.In December 2012, EUs court of Justice made a study landmark decision when it ruled out that the decision by the EU to include the international aviation in the ETS did not contravene international law as claimed by many international airline operators (Sandbag, 2012). This meant that the court gave EU authority to implement the carbon emission policy. Although there is heretofore an ongoing row that has escalated into a number of non-EU members joining forces together to challenge EU and its emission policy, the move towards safer environment is on course, with EU leading the park towards realising this important milestone It is important to note that major EU airlines are in the process of adopting ETS to set pace for their international peers. This is an important step considering that 25 percent o f the total aviation emission comes from the regions airlines (Braun, 2008).ConclusionEU aviation policy has been hailed around the world as one that has achieved success amid the biting economic challenges facing many airline industry players. EU aviation industry has seen tremendous growth and development for the last two decades. unity of reasons for this astronomical growth has been attributed to the unions efforts to provide safe, affordable, convenient and efficient service for its customers. Policy formulation, look and implementation are some of the most important operational aspects of aviation sector the union has embraced. condescension the numerous challenges, some of which are cross-border related, various reports show that EUs efforts have resulted into some measurable success that is not comparable to any other regional union around the world. The unions mega policy on aviation, which consists of internal and external, has seen substantial changes in safety, freed om to establish and provide more choices, initiative of more markets, increased affordability & convenience and environmental safety. These initiatives have also led to affordable pricing by the airlines, convenience, and safer environment. Its no doubt the reason why EU is considered the worlds largest and the most successful regional market integration with the most liberalised air transport.ReferencesBows, A., Mander, S. Randles, S., and Anderson K. (2010). Aviation emission in thecontext of climate change a consumption- production approach. Final Policy Report. June 2010.Braun, M. (2008). The evolution of emission trading in the European Union- The roleof policy networks, knowledge and policy entrepreneurs. Accounting Organisations and Society doi10.1016/j.aos.2008.06.002 1-19.De, P.K. (2011). Public Policy and Systems. overbold Jersey, NJ Pearson Education.EASA Annual Safety Review http//easa.europa.eu/newsroom-and-events/generalpublicationsEuropean Commission. (2009). FWC Se ctor Competitiveness Studies-Competitiveness of the EU Aerospace Industry with focus on Aeronautics Industry. European Commission Final Report, 15 December 2009.Ferroff, C., Mavin, T.J., Bates P.R. and Murray, P.S. (2012). A case for socialconstructionism in aviation safety and human performance research. Aeronautica, Issue 3, p. 1-12.Sandbag (2012), Aviation and the EU ETS What happened in 2012 during Stop theClockDecember 2012. Last retrieved on 14 May 2012 from http//www.sandbag.org.uk/site_media/pdfs/reports/Sandbag_Aviation_and_the_EU_ETS_2012_171213_1.pdfZmarreno, C.M. (2012). EU aviation policy in terms of access market. Presentationfor Euromed Aviation II initial store on Market Access, Brussels, 17 December 2012.