Challenge and conflict in aviation 

The history of aviation is rich with conflicts and challenges which have been launch pads for propelling the aviation industry to higher levels of progress.

Unruly and disruptive passengers in flight and on ground in the airport, missing baggage, missed flights, are what for a traveller immediately come to mind among others, when challenges and conflicts are mentioned in aviation. Recently there is also the challenge and conflict from drones and balloons especially in military aviation. For Africa there is the challenge of a Single African Air Transport Market (SATM).

Challenges and conflicts should be anticipated at all touch points in the customer journey. This means that even the experience at the parking lot or with some retailers or vendors at or near the airport should not escape the searchlight of the customer experience team at the airport. Some experiences around the airport either by the traveller or by friends and family who escorted the traveller to the airport can affect the customer experience as well as the willingness and capacity to spend by the traveller at the airport.

Passenger experience and facilitation should be planned by an airport to ensure that there is an expectation of what experience the passenger should expect. Challenges and conflicts should be anticipated and mitigation planned for. The ACI ASQ survey can be used as a base case to plan towards what customer experience goals are achievable in short, medium and long terms. One vision of success in this regard will be winning the ASQ award of the Airport Council International ( ACI), which is the voice of the world’s airports.

With its robust experience with conflicts, aviation,  especially civil aviation, has developed a robust conflict resolution mechanism.

During World War 1 commencing 1914, aircraft were initially used for reconnaissance and eventually bombing along with air – to – air combat. At the end of the war there were surplus pilots and aircraft. This was a challenge that began to open up a market for aviation.

Faced with the challenge of earning an income, these trained and experienced pilots that had become very many, found innovative  ways of employing their skills. Some pilots found work providing stunt shows, some others got involved in flight training, chartered passenger services, aerial surveying, fire fighting and advertising (scattering fliers all around town).

From around 1919 when the first airlines began to appear, up till the second World War in 1939, aviation was yet to have a popular appeal. The second World War helped aviation surmount this challenge. The war was a launch pad for a quantum leap in operational and technical aspects of aviation.

Air power was an important determining factor in the war unlike during the first World War where aviation had played a supportive role. Aviation had begun to grow very fast.

After the war a new challenge emerged- getting the world to agree on rules for aviation. The major ingredient for such a consensus was going to be trust and cooperation.

Then came the Paris Convention and under the then League of Nations (The forerunner to the United Nations), the International Commission for Air Navigation (ICAN) was created. It had the responsibility for the management and creation of new regulations for aviation.

Now, the states from North,  South and Central America held a Pan American conference in Havana with the aim of replicating the Paris convention.

Aviation again had to contend with the new challenge of two sets of regulations. There could be confusion abiding by them. A single unifying convention would best serve the interests of the stakeholders in the industry. Then came the Chicago convention, as well as the creation of the International Civil Aviation Organisation ( ICAO) to resolve this conflict.

To underscore the importance of trust and co-operation as a launch pad for growing aviation, after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, relations between Cuba and the United States went sour quickly. This eventually led to a travel ban on United States citizens visiting Cuba. However, this has changed in recent times and restrictions to travel are no more that difficult between Cuba and the United States of America. Ironically the first Pan American conference on aviation had before 1959 been held in Havana, Cuba.

As Africa seeks to build a Single African Air Transport Market,  trust and co-operation are vital foundation stones for the launch pad. As Africans we must look beyond what divides us to become conscious of the fact that we are neighbours and brothers with a common need to grow our wealth and live better lives than our forefathers and aviation is vital to achieving this goal.

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