...It’s common knowledge within the industry that Mark Skidmore will be on the CASA payroll from 1 December, but know we learn that he won’t effectively be DAS until 1 January. Instead he will spend the first month (coincidentally the first weeks of the ‘silly season’) meeting people from industry and from inside CASA.
That’s certainly sounds like a worthy task but we’ve waited too long already for a new DAS and I think we’d all feel more comfortable if we knew the new man was on the job immediately. After all, if he wants a thorough briefing on CASA and the industry there’s a pretty good one out there already, called the Forsyth Report.
And there would be some advantages in getting to grips with the issues without first having laid oneself open to the persuasions of individuals and sector interests. A bit of space for a while between him and those vocal interests could assist in some dispassionate assessment.
But it’s not going to be, so we’ll have to hope the man can maintain some useful perspective in the face of a likely onslaught of ‘advice’ from every direction. If I was him (not that I’d ever want to be) I’d be sticking pretty close to David Forsyth for a while.
The Australian Airports Association conference on the Gold Coast this week was undoubtedly a success, although all those late registrations had Caroline Wilkie and her team on edge for a time. As did the fact that it was the first week of ‘Schoolies’. But all went extremely well for what is now Australia’s second biggest aviation event (after the Avalon Airshow).
And like all such events, large and small, the really useful thing is the networking, despite the attractions on the speaker and panel program. I caught up with a lot of people that I may only see once a year, but who are movers and shakers in our industry with a lot of background to provide about what’s happening behind the scenes. I need that sort of confidential information and perspective, not to share with others of course, but to inform the opinion that I can share.
I thought too that this was an occasion when it would have been good to see new DAS Mark Skidmore around the edges of the conference, even for a day. Not in an official capacity of course as he doesn’t take up the job for another week. But it would have been a valuable piece of
PR. And in a non-threatening environment, because it hasn’t been the airport sector that has been baying for CASA blood...