TOWARDS A REFORMATTING OF THE CIVIL AVIATION SECTOR: AUTONOMOUS FLYING VEHICLES

Overview & Synopsis

Environmental awareness had already targeted the airline industry with the "plane bashing" (being ashamed of taking the plane because of its carbon footprint). Airlines around the world have now been lastingly weakened by the coronavirus epidemic, both from a financial and, more generally, operational point of view. This situation has often required state support to avoid bankruptcy, with no guarantee of recovery in the short term. For example, the Italian company Alitalia received three billion euros in the form of a bank loan guaranteed by the state 1 , which de facto became the owner of the company. In Germany, the state intends to acquire 25 per cent of the capital of Lufthansa, while Air France-KLM is conditionally supported by France and the Netherlands. On the other hand, the spread of electric flying vehicles 2 seems to be the starting point of a new mobility revolution to relieve traffic congestion in big cities in the years to come.