Top leaders from aerospace companies in the US and Europe have agreed to drive ethical business practices and increase efforts to improve aviation’s impact on the environment.
The agreement follows a top level strategic meeting at show yesterday, when some of the largest and most influential aerospace companies on both sides of the Atlantic also discussed efforts to improve export control systems.
The leaders agreed to use the separate business ethics regimes in place in the US and Europe as a starting point for efforts to exchange good practices internationally. The two sides agreed to hold an international forum on business conduct each year to mark progress and plan strategy.
Ake Svensson of Saab led the European delegation and Clay Jones of Rockwell Collins headed the US group. Other participants included Allan Cook of Cobham and Denis Ranque of Thales on the European side, and Robert Stevens of Lockheed Martin and William Swanson of Raytheon for the US.
ASD secretary general Francois Gayet supported the European executives, while AIA President and CEO Marion Blakey supported the US delegation.
“It’s vital that we work closely with our European partners on these issues, and we have solid marching orders on the way forward,” Blakey says. “This will lead to continued progress on improvements in ethics, the environment, the NextGen and Sesar airspace modernisation programmes and the other important matters.”
“Transatlantic cooperation is essential to tackle environmental and technological challenges,” says François Gayet. “These challenges are common to the US and the European aerospace industries, which both operate on a global scale.”
Source: Flight International