98 LEGAL IMPACTS OF COVID-19 IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY 3.4. Scenario 4: A new beginning Finally, the fourth scenario is that we rethink things anew. The hardest thing about change in the aviation industry is that it is always in motion. As the old adage goes: you can’t change an engine whilst the aircraft is in flight. Fleets are grounded around the world, making this time very similar to the post-World War II environment. It is time to revisit anew the laws and policies that guide international air transport. States should further relax ownership and control provisions, allowing crossborder mergers. The focus should be placed on the aviation industry as an ecosystem, with concerns of airports and air navigation service providers receiving higher priority than only being relegated to the position of downstream service providers in a supply chain. This might take a new competition law model at the international level, focused on market structures rather than prices. Forward-looking digital technologies for passenger ticketing might also be marshalled to eliminate inefficiencies and maximise outputs. Environmental concerns should play a larger role in market structures. The grounding of fleets during the COVID-19 crisis will demonstrate that ICAO’s CORSIA is a mere window dressing on an industry that contributes substantially to increases in global warming emissions. Reactions might address the inefficiencies built into the low-cost airline model, which mainly conducts shorthaul flights and relies on point-to-point services rather than a hub-and-spoke model22. Tackling emissions will also likely require rethinking travel as an ecosystem more generally and taking steps to increase multi-modal transport and automation. 4. CONCLUSIONS: BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE When faced with the crisis of a fracturing nation, US President Abraham Lincoln said “Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature”. 22 Arthur Neslen, “‘Ryanair is the new coal’: airline enters EU’s top 10 emitters list” The Guardian (1 April 2019) https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/apr/01/ryanair-new-coal-airline-enters-eu-top-10emitters-list.
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