Greece’s capital city Athens is the perfect setting for this year’s ERA General Assembly. More than 400 European aviation leaders and key industry figures from ERA member companies are attending the event over the three days, 17–19 October and connecting with colleagues from across the industry. This year’s ERA General Assembly explores leadership and looks into how the right mindset, company culture and innovation are key factors to long-term business success. 
The event began on Tuesday 17 October with delegates participating in social functions including the Athens city tour and the popular golf tournament at the Glyfada Golf Club. The ERA Operations Group also got together for its first session over the two days. This highly-focussed and proactive group’s key focus is to improve the operational and cost efficiency of flight and ground operations. The session was very well attended with an interesting agenda featuring presentations on space-based ADS-B/Datalink by ENAV, avionics requirements for civil aircraft by L3 Aviation Products and surveillance, navigation and communication implementation by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) – EASA has been working on a proposal to the European Commission concerning a revision to the upcoming SPI Regulation (EU) No 1028/2014. EASA also provided an update on the agency’s work on Controller Pilot Datalink communications and other CNS-related activity. European GNSS Agency then presented on the EGNOS Exploitative Grant Plan and Eurocontrol debriefed the group about the RNAV approach implementation support group’s last meeting which took place in June.
In the evening, the delegates got together at the General Assembly welcome reception, taking place in the extensive exhibition area where member companies exhibiting at the event are showcasing their products and services over the three days.
Supporting social and economic growth
With inspiring expert speakers and excellent networking opportunities, the next two days of the conference will spark debate about how the industry can continue to drive social and economic growth in Europe. Paula Bangle, General Manager Business Development, Membership and Communications at ERA, commented: “Connectivity is extremely important to Europe's economic wellbeing and social development and European aviation industry plays a vital part in this. With so many members from all over the world attending, the event is an ideal opportunity to showcase the industry’s contribution to the world.”
Day 2 report