Aviation Daily on Airports

The World According to Embraer's Fred Curado

The Aviation Week team does a regular series of editorial roundtables with the industry's movers and shakers.  Embraer CEO Frederico Fleury Curado was our guest April 9, and he covered myriad topics, including competition on the commercial and business jet segments and future aircraft development.

My colleage Joe Anselmo did a story in the April 11 issue (subscribers only) of Aviation Daily where he observed how times have changed in the government subsidies fight over aircraft development.  He noted that when Embraer took on regional jet powerhouse Bombardier in the 1990s, it was swatted by the World Trade Organization (WTO) for receiving unfair subsidies from the Brazilian government.

But now that Embraer is the market leader, the Brazilian company is warning that similar behavior won’t be tolerated from an emerging competitor, Japan’s Mitsubishi. Curado says his company will ask the Brazilian government to closely monitor the Mitsubishi program to make sure the Japanese government funding does not violate WTO rules.

“If they want to bring a product [to market], bring it on its own merits,” Curado said in his interview with AVIATION WEEK editors. “They have to comply with the WTO framework.”

You can click here  to listen to my 3:17-minute podcast where Curado discusses prospects for the 50-seat regional jet market.

Airports and New Media, Continued

The Airports Council International-North America Media Relations & Crisis Communications seminar at DFW Airport April 3-4 was the place to be.  Attendees this year were double of that attending last year, and with the helter-skelter growth of new media, everyone wants to get a sense of what's out there and what others are doing to wrap their hands around it.

You can click here to see a summary of my presentation on my efforts to incorporate some of the new media tools into my reporting.  And click here  to see an amusing, yet relevant video created by the corporate communications staff at DFW Airport on how to navigate the beast that is new media.

I was able to casually chat with people on what they hoped to take back home to help take the next steps in creating or expanding new media efforts.  You can listen to my 4:56 minute podcast here, where I chatted with 4 airport public relations practitioners.  Enjoy!

Now Taking Off - TSA's Airport Security Checkpoint of the Future

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) unveiled a pilot program at Washington National that will test features for the airport security checkpoint of the future, which I covered in the April 1 issue (subscribers only) of Aviation Daily.

The actual checkpoint will be installed at Baltimore Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport (my hometown airport) in the coming weeks.  You can see what to expect as a passenger here, complete with video.  But check out all the cool mood lighting -- it's almost like being on a Virgin America flight!

But in a nutshell, TSA is taking technologies and programs that have been successful in the past and putting them in one place, said spokesman Christopher White.  “We want to see how it all works together when you have behavior detection officers, travel document checkers, millimeter whole body imagers and advanced x-rays in one place,” he explained.  “We’ve taken all these things that are operating separately in hundreds of airports around the country and put them all together to see how they operate in one cohesive unit.”

While you stand in line, you'll be able to read profiles of the transportation security officers in your airport (see below).  The idea is to put a human face on the TSOs, and maybe make you less likely to scream at them when they are unable to change policies and regulations.

Example of a TSO profile featured while standing in line

And when you get to the end of the line, your documents will be checked at a more prefessional-looking podium, designed to process passengers in an orderly manner (see below).

Click here to listen to my 3:10 minute podcast with TSA's Christopher White on more elements of the checkpoint evolution.