MARPA is scheduled to hold its 2020 European Conference at SAS Headquarters in late May. MARPA has been paying attention to the Coronavirus (‘Covid-19’) updates. Just as aviation safety is at the heart of everything we do, protecting the health of our members and colleagues is also one of MARPA’s core values.
About three weeks ago, we started to formally analyze our Conference risks related to Coronavirus. Since that time, we’ve been working with the MARPA Board, the MARPA Air Carrier Committee, and our conference host, Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), to gather information and assess risks and options.
As we’ve continued to gather data, the data has grown increasingly pessimistic. Today, the World Health Organization declared Coronavirus a global pandemic. We’ve seen a variety of responses to Coronavirus. Many companies have announced travel limitations or bans for their employees. Some conferences are still being held and others are cancelling. Many of the conference that are being cancelled are being cancelled at the last minute, which can be quite inconvenient for attendees, who may have made significant investments in anticipation of attending the conference. On the other hand, there are parties who are optimistic about an end to Coronavirus as the Northern Hemisphere begins to enjoy the warmth of Spring.
As we consider our options, MARPA is weighing the risk to the health of our members and colleagues as a primary factor in our decision. MARPA is also balancing (1) the participants’ interests in seeing an early decision made (so they can plan appropriately) against (2) the industry’s interests in seeing a decision based on the best available data (so the decision is as correct as possible), which tends to mean that a later decision is preferable in order to make risk decisions on the best available information. In order to strike an appropriate balance between these two competing interests, MARPA plans to make a decision about the Stockholm conference before the end of March.
Our decision is not a mere binary decision (‘hold’/’don’t hold’ the meeting). We are investigating other options such as a virtual meeting that would permit the latest information to be shared while mitigating risks to health.
Pending a late-March decision, we ask that our members and colleagues forbear from making further investments in anticipation of the Stockholm Conference. If things are looking positive at the end of March, then there will still be plenty of time to book flights and rooms and make other conference-related investments; but if things are not looking good then we don’t want our community to have made any commitments that cannot be undone.
We look forward to providing you with a well-reasoned decision by the end of the month.
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