MUNICH, Germany—Last week a major agreement for joint management and consolidation of airspace was reached between six European countries, which could revolutionize the European travel industry.
Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Switzerland were part of a project called Single European Sky (SES), aiming to organize and unite civil and military air traffic among the countries, to reduce costs, shorten flight times, save fuel, increase efficiency, and decrease carbon emissions.
The successful agreement between the six earlier mentioned countries creates a Functional Airspace Block—Europe Central (FABEC) that would operate and be managed as a single unit regardless of which country the airspace belongs. The airspace covered by those six countries comprises 55 percent of all European air traffic and is regarded as the busiest and the most complex on the continent.
“The FABEC agreement is an important step in reducing airspace fragmentation, as it covers the core area of Europe with many large airports. Today’s signature should be an inspiration for the other Member States in their efforts to have all the functional airspace blocks in place by the deadline of 4 December 2012,” said European Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas, who is responsible for transport, in a statement.
“The functional airspace blocks will be able to satisfy the growing capacity requirements of all airspace users with a minimum of delays by managing air traffic more dynamically. At the same time, safety standards and overall efficiency will be enhanced,” he added.
The SES project set highly aggressive 2020 targets to reduce costs by 50 percent, increase airspace capacity threefold, improve safety by a factor of 10, reduce delays to an average of 30 seconds, and reduce harmful environmental emissions by 10 percent.
“Air Traffic Management (ATM) in Europe is an uncompetitive mess. Introducing performance targets or re-grouping the administration of ANSPs will not deliver meaningful results without challenging targets.
Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Switzerland were part of a project called Single European Sky (SES), aiming to organize and unite civil and military air traffic among the countries, to reduce costs, shorten flight times, save fuel, increase efficiency, and decrease carbon emissions.
The successful agreement between the six earlier mentioned countries creates a Functional Airspace Block—Europe Central (FABEC) that would operate and be managed as a single unit regardless of which country the airspace belongs. The airspace covered by those six countries comprises 55 percent of all European air traffic and is regarded as the busiest and the most complex on the continent.
“The FABEC agreement is an important step in reducing airspace fragmentation, as it covers the core area of Europe with many large airports. Today’s signature should be an inspiration for the other Member States in their efforts to have all the functional airspace blocks in place by the deadline of 4 December 2012,” said European Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas, who is responsible for transport, in a statement.
“The functional airspace blocks will be able to satisfy the growing capacity requirements of all airspace users with a minimum of delays by managing air traffic more dynamically. At the same time, safety standards and overall efficiency will be enhanced,” he added.
The SES project set highly aggressive 2020 targets to reduce costs by 50 percent, increase airspace capacity threefold, improve safety by a factor of 10, reduce delays to an average of 30 seconds, and reduce harmful environmental emissions by 10 percent.
“Air Traffic Management (ATM) in Europe is an uncompetitive mess. Introducing performance targets or re-grouping the administration of ANSPs will not deliver meaningful results without challenging targets.
“SES will be successful when I see SES’s long-promised EUR 5 billion cost savings. Until then, Europe has a EUR 5 billion competitive disadvantage that is felt by everybody who travels or ships on the continent. That is why we need political leaders to step in and drive the process with a vision to restore Europe’s competitiveness,” said Giovanni Bisignani, director of International Air Transport Association (IATA), in a statement.
Just for comparison, an average flight in Europe costs 771 euros (US$1,020), while a flight to the United States costs 440 euros (US$580). Such high flight costs put European airline companies at a competitive disadvantage, amassing 9.6 billion euros in costs per year.
The FABEC is an addition to the already existing FAB UK-Ireland, FAB Denmark-Sweden, and a Blue Med region comprised of Italy, Greece, Cyprus, and Malta, along with Tunisia, Egypt, and Albania. In the next two years all of the EU countries are expected to join similar FABs.
“This is a truly Trans-European project, which will not be targeting air traffic controllers; they will become integral part of a globally competitive infrastructure service provider—to the benefit of employment and the environment,” said Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus, Secretary General of the Association of European Airlines.
“Re-drawing the map of the skies above the Single Market is an essential feature of the Single Sky. These so-called ‘Functional Blocks of Airspace,’ FABs, replace the current system of airspace management along national borders by a ‘Schengen [agreement] for the Skies.’ The agreement now signed on a central European FAB, FABEC, lies at the heart of Europe’s airway system; it will be by far the busiest of the nine Functional Airspace Blocks which will replace the national systems,” he added.
Ulrich however warned that the real work lay ahead.
“It is an inter-governmental agreement which creates the legal basis for FABEC, not a consensus on how it will work. The next step is for the air navigation service providers of the states involved to sit down together and get to work on the details. Key are the performance targets, which must remedy the weaknesses of the current system and therefore be ambitious.”
The FABEC is an addition to the already existing FAB UK-Ireland, FAB Denmark-Sweden, and a Blue Med region comprised of Italy, Greece, Cyprus, and Malta, along with Tunisia, Egypt, and Albania. In the next two years all of the EU countries are expected to join similar FABs.
“This is a truly Trans-European project, which will not be targeting air traffic controllers; they will become integral part of a globally competitive infrastructure service provider—to the benefit of employment and the environment,” said Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus, Secretary General of the Association of European Airlines.
“Re-drawing the map of the skies above the Single Market is an essential feature of the Single Sky. These so-called ‘Functional Blocks of Airspace,’ FABs, replace the current system of airspace management along national borders by a ‘Schengen [agreement] for the Skies.’ The agreement now signed on a central European FAB, FABEC, lies at the heart of Europe’s airway system; it will be by far the busiest of the nine Functional Airspace Blocks which will replace the national systems,” he added.
Ulrich however warned that the real work lay ahead.
“It is an inter-governmental agreement which creates the legal basis for FABEC, not a consensus on how it will work. The next step is for the air navigation service providers of the states involved to sit down together and get to work on the details. Key are the performance targets, which must remedy the weaknesses of the current system and therefore be ambitious.”
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