Roundtable with Chair of UK CAA

Roundtable with Sir Stephen Hillier, Chairman UK CAA

A Roundtable with Chair of UK CAA, Sir Stephen Hillier, was held on 28 Sep 2023 and ably moderated by Derek Cheng, Head of Commercial APAC at Vertical Aerospace. The session took place on the sidelines of the Global Urban and Advanced Air Summit 2023 in Singapore and was hosted at Bombardier Aerospace Services. Participants included representatives from AAIS, Air Asia, Bombardier, CAAS, EDB, NATS, SIA Engineering Co, Skyports, ST Engineering, and Vertical Aerospace.

Participants spoke of their roles in the Aerospace ecosystem, with particular reference to Urban Air Mobility. Issues of common concern were raised and views exchanged about the global talent challenge and the need for agility by regulators. The latter pointed to a need for closer cooperation with industry. Naturally this also necessitated organisational changes and safeguards to avoid the risk of “regulatory capture”. On green aviation, there were concerns about an over reliance on Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) as a solution. There was uncertainty over whether the production of SAF was able to grow as rapidly as the demand suggested by net zero commitments.