Mr. Willie Walsh:

As a result of an aircraft accident a number of years ago, the US specifies a minimum number of flying hours for pilots before they can operate on commercial aircraft, and that does not exist anywhere else. Quite honestly, while I can understand why politicians moved to make that decision, it has not really achieved its goal. It could have been better achieved through what we do in Europe, namely, a structured training programme, such as the one I went through, where pilots are trained from scratch through to flying a modern jet aircraft, with training structured around that. That has not tended to be the way it is done in the US. I foresee that continuing to impact on the US and it will have a significant impact on regional flying in the US.

Longer term, the main issue facing our industry is that of the environment. As an industry, we are committed to achieving net zero by 2050 and we have a credible pathway to get there, but it is going to be challenging and expensive. We have estimated that the total cost of transition will be of the order of $2 trillion, although there is probably some double counting in that and we will calculate a more refined cost base because that figure includes the cost of new-technology aircraft, something we would have faced in any event. It is going to be an expensive transition and it will clearly have an impact on how the industry operates. Outside of that, the skies are getting busier and, therefore, we need much more efficient air traffic systems. I am confident we can do that because the technology exists. We just need political will to take advantage of the technology.