Aviation Future: Challenges and Solutions – AFCS 2021 International Conference

Author: Dr. Nguyen Thi Hai Hang, President of Vietnam Aviation Academy

The scientific conference on Aviation with the theme: “Aviation Future: Challenges and Solutions” – AFCS 2021 was organized by Vietnam Aviation Academy in collaboration with Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) on 27-28 May 2021. This conference was conducted under the framework of the Vietnam – Netherlands Cooperation Program on Civil Aviation initiated and implemented by the Dutch Aviation since 2018.

We have been witnessed a hard period of unprecedented global sanitary crisis caused by the epidemic. The world's aviation industry has been facing a serious decline as travel between countries has been limited to the lowest level, millions of jobs in the aviation industry have been lost, the efforts of aviation businesses for decades have been suppressed after one year of being swept by the Covid-19 epidemic. Countries all over the world are making efforts to apply the achievements of sciences and technology to control such epidemic in order for us to return to our normal and peaceful days. Everything is possible, our life will probably have a new normal status, but surely one thing, we do not wait and accept living in fear in an inactive way. We have to prepare well for our future in the Post-Covid-19.

This scientific workshop is a great testament to the proactive research and exploration of solutions for the aviation industry to overcome challenges. The workshop had been prepared by the organizers of Vietnam and the Netherlands for more than one year with several good quality research articles, published by the leading scientific publisher, Elsevier. The workshop also received interests and participations of leading aviation experts in the world and aviation businesses from Vietnam and Europe.

The Civil Aviation Authorities of Vietnam highly appreciated and appraised the efforts of the organizers and sponsors who have offered great opportunities for academics, businesses and practitioners to gather and discuss aviation-related issues. Although it was an online conference, the sharing of knowledge and experience always brings precious values, moreover, the research results presented at the workshop, the lessons learned by countries worldwide, the point of views from aviation experts ... will be valuable resources for the advisors on transport development policies in general and aviation industry in particular in Vietnam.

The conference finished two plenary sessions on the opportunities for the civil aviation in the 21st century, we would like to thank you for the attendance of Pro. Geer Boosten from the Aviation Academy, Amsterdam University of Applied Sicences; Mr. Thang Dinh Viet, Director General from Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam; and key note speakers in this conference, including Prof. Pablo Mendes de Leon from the International Institute of Air and Space Law, Leiden University of the Netherlands; Prof. Pier Marzocca and Prof. Chrystal Zhang from School of Engineering, RMIT University in Australia; and Dr. Huyen Vuong, Quality Assurance Manager and IOSA Auditor, Aviation Compliance Solutions Consolidated Group in Australia.

We also thank for the kind acceptance from aviation experts, including Prof. Zheng Lei from Swinburne University in Australia, Prof. Pablo Mendes de Leon from Leiden University in Netherlands, Mr. Mick Werson from NACO/ InterVISTA company in the Netherlands and Mr. Sau Pham Ngoc, CEO of Van Don Airport in Vietnam, that take part in our discussion panel to discuss on issues relating to ownership models of airport experiences and issues of Vietnam and the Aviation Outlook in post Covid-19 pandemic.

 We had 6 conference tracks, in which 4 conference tracks took place on 27th May with the topics including Aviation development and innovation, air transport management, airport management and operation; Maintenance, repair and overhaul; and 2 tracks took place on 28th May including aviation development and innovations; and airlines.

Some of remarkable and impressive proposals are the articulated design approach by creating the inner spaces go integrate with the groundside landscape, building performance and green technologies for the airport; the implementation free airspace to assign an altitude above 18,000 feet which aircraft will fly within European nations; and the contribution to build the optimal model for predicting aerodynamic characteristics to help researchers in the field to develop more effective wind turbine designs in accordance to geographical conditions in Vietnam, and new approach to predict the retirement of aircraft using an AI-based approach basing on a neutral network model – taking into account of economic development factors. Further research with finer training data would bring a great potential for this approach used by the players/stakeholders in Aviation industry as a decision making tool regarding their (aircraft) fleet, and etc…

We would like to thank Prof. Roderick James McDonald, Prof. Ha Nam Khanh Giao, Dr. Huyen Vuong, Dr. Hoang Nguyen The, and Dr. Dzung Pham Viet to chair these conference track sessions.

We selected 14 articles to publish on the Transportation Research Procedia with the leading international publisher, Elseviers, for this conference special issue. Thank you very much for all authors who contribute and present their recent researches on aviation concerns and we hope to have more collaborations from academias and practioners, to raise up concerns and solutions for the aviation industry in the future.