The 2017 Ecac-Ue Dialogue took place on 27 and 28 June in Rome. This tenth Dialogue explored challenges and opportunities in financing aviation.

The event, which was organized also with Enac collaboration, recalled the presence of the aviation world (there were, among others, ICAO  Secretary General, Fang Liu, Italian Minister of Infrastructure And Transport, Graziano Delrio, ENAC Director General, Alessio Quaranta, ACI Director General, Angela Gittens, and airlines, airports and aeronautical industries leaders).

The analysis of the aviation sector today in Europe showed the different approaches and solutions of other regions of the world, based on vertical integration models between airports and air carriers and/or public investment.

The way followed by European airports, almost obligatory because of  budgetary constraints and fiscal discipline, but also due to the strict rules relating to state aids, has made themselves “the business” around which today a large part of the economy revolves, thanks to the presence of private shareholders interested as public ones to earn revenue as quickly as possible, and therefore willing to find innovative solutions to make the sector dynamic and competitive. The ever-growing airport competition proves to have a strong impact on the same management of airports, pushing for a global expansion, and therefore towards the creation of a rational connections network through development of strategies and routes. This means: airport competitive rates, quality, operability and cost efficiency.
The solid know-how built by the EU large airport groups, thanks to the central role exercised in the last years, is creating new prospects, with overseas airport projects, and therefore new challenges.
After having recognized innovation as the aviation central point, the conference concluded works, hoping for a coordinated and consistent relationship between stakeholders, particularly between airlines, airports, Ansp and regulators.