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Here in Oz we have recently introduced compulsory drug testing for people involved in aviation.
At first sight this might seem like a good thing and a sort of Motherhood matter. Who could object to it?
On second thought I am not so sure.
Firstly what is the rationale for it? Do we really think people are flying and working in aviation under the influence? Where is the evidence?
If there are individuals so irresponsible and I do fear there are would anyone so irresponsible be liable to change their behaviour in the face of possibly being confronted with a blow in the bag or lick the stick man?

I rather suspect not.
How much does all this cost and where is the cost benefit analysis?
Having observed Aviation for quite a long time I have a very uneasy feeling that the reality here is that this is a feel good exercise for box tickers which will as is becoming usual lead to much of the effort and a large slab of the cost being handed on to the aviation community so bureaucrats can be seen to be doing good stuff.
Aviation is, perhaps inevitably, highly regulated but recently I have noticed increasing mountains of paper all in the name of compliance and safety with entities such as the SMS (Safety Management system) becoming required and yet in practice becoming more like a distracting burden. There is only so much time people can give to such things before they actually subtract from the time and attention available to Aviate safely.
Maybe there should be a requirement for a regulation to be removed before another can be applied?
I would be very intersted in the views of others on this.

Organizers of next week’s centennial Paris Air Show said Monday the world’s biggest aviation industry gathering won’t be diminished by the global economic crisis, which has hit the aviation industry hard.

Organizers expect around 300,000 visitors this year, half of them professionals, about the same as the last show in 2007 — despite notable no-shows such as business jet makers Gulfstream and Cessna.

“This year again, despite the crisis we consider that it is a considerable success because we’re full,” said Louis Le Portz, the air show’s chief executive. Roughly the same number of exhibitors will be present as in 2007, around 2,000, Le Portz said. Read more…

Amid the deepest and broadest economic crisis since World War II, the near-term outlook for business aviation is taking a beating. Added to the inevitable cost-cutting by corporate customers is the populist fury over perceived misuse of corporate aircraft by “fat cat” Wall Street bankers and self-serving business executives.

Aviation industry analysts and operators say that the business need for corporate jets is as clear as ever and that the market will recover in due course. But, they add, the bottom has not yet been reached and it will likely take years to get back even to current levels, let alone earlier peaks.

Perhaps the clearest victims of the slump have been the start-up makers of “very light jets,” or V.L.J.’s, once seen as a market niche of quasi-revolutionary potential, and now dismissed as “irrelevant” by Richard Aboulafia, the vice president of Teal Group, an aviation industry consulting firm in Fairfax, Virginia.

In November 2008, Eclipse Aviation, founded in 1998 and developer of the Eclipse 500 V.L.J., went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, before being liquidated in February. Adam Aircraft, another V.L.J. start-up founded the same year, ceased operations and laid off all employees last month.

The disappearance of the Eclipse 500 prompted a decision, also last month, by Robert L. Crandall, formerly the chief executive of American Airlines, to shut down Pogo Jet, an air taxi project, of which he was chairman, and to return remaining corporate funds to investors.

Teal Group’s most recent annual 10-year forecast on global business aircraft, published last month, illustrates the depth and swiftness of the downturn. The forecast predicts deliveries of 12,678 business aircraft, valued at $195.7 billion, in the decade through 2018. A year ago, Teal predicted deliveries of 18,401 aircraft, valued at $270.6 billion, in the decade to 2017. Read more…