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Mark Holmes
is the editorial director for Avionics Magazine and Via Satellite magazine. |
We have just returned from the AEEC | AMC conference in Prague, which was a very successful event. The overall mood of the industry seemed pretty positive as the NextGen and connected world we live in opens up a host of new opportunities for avionics players to equip new planes, as well as retrofit old ones.
In many ways, it has not been a good year for the airline industry with the Germanwings, Malaysia Airlines, and Air Asia tragedies dominating headlines. This has led to a lot of soul searching and, while there may have been outside factors that led to these incidents, using technology to make aircraft safer is always a key requirement for the avionics industry. Aircraft are becoming more complex than ever before and, with airlines working in a competitive environment, being more efficient by using the latest technologies is absolutely vital.
In this edition of Avionics Magazine we look at a number of different aspects of the market. We have exclusive reader surveys on the wire and cable market, as well as the Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs) market. These are two areas where a lot is happening on the technology front, and we talk to key decision makers, as well as analyze the latest data on the market. Our Junior Editor, Juliet Van Wagenen takes a look at how connectivity is impacting future NextGen strategy. And Woodrow Bellamy III takes a look at the latest developments surrounding SESAR and the Single European Sky initiative, which like NextGen in the United States is reaching crunch time.
We are also counting down to our second Global Connected Aircraft Summit which takes place in June in Washington, D.C.. We have around 15 airline speakers and 17 leading industry sponsors. It promises to be a great event. We look forward to seeing you there.