The
European Commission has acted to speed up the reform of
Europe's air traffic control system. The Commission is looking to
head off a capacity crunch as the number of flights is forecast to
increase by 50% over the next 10-20 years.1 Inefficiencies
in Europe's fragmented airspace bring extra costs of close to 5
billion Euros each year to airlines and their customers. They add 42
kilometres to the distance of an average flight forcing aircraft to
burn more fuel, generate more emissions, pay more in costly user
charges and suffer greater delays. The United States controls the
same amount of airspace, with more traffic, at almost half the cost.
EU
Transport Commissioner, Siim Kallas, said: "Our airlines
and their passengers have had to endure more than 10 years of reduced
services and missed deadlines on the route to a Single European Sky.
We cannot afford to continue this way. Today we are strengthening the
nuts and bolts of the system so it can withstand more pressure and
deliver ambitious reforms even in difficult economic times. We
need to boost the competitiveness of the European aviation sector and
create more jobs in the airlines and at airports".
The
Commission is proposing to update the four regulations creating the
Single European Sky (SES), and amend rules governing the European
Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Key elements of the proposals known as
SES2+ include:
Better
safety and oversight
Safety
remains the first priority for aviation. EASA (European Aviation
Safety Agency) audits have shown great deficiencies in the oversight
of air traffic control organisations in the Member States. The
Commission is proposing full organisational and budgetary separation
of national supervisory authorities from the air traffic control
organisations whom they oversee, while at the same time ensuring
sufficient resources are given to the National Supervisory
Authorities to do their tasks. This will have a very positive effect
both on oversight and safety. Many supervisory authorities are
currently under-resourced and dependent on the support of the
entities they are supposed to oversee.
In
the future airlines will have a new role in signing off air traffic
control organisations' investment plans to ensure they are better
focused on meeting customer needs.
Better
Air Traffic Management Performance
The
reform of Europe's air traffic management system is driven by four
key performance targets: safety, cost-efficiency, capacity and
environment. These targets go to the heart of the reform process as
they require air traffic control organisations to change and provide
better services at lower cost.
In
recent years, the delivery on performance targets has fallen
significantly short of the overall level of ambition. This is
because, under the current system, Member States have the ultimate
say on targets and the adoption of corrective measures in case
targets are not reached.
The
Commission's proposal will strengthen the performance scheme by
making the target setting more independent, transparent and more
enforceable. It will strengthen the role of the Commission in setting
ambitious targets. At the same time, it will increase the
independence of the Performance Review Body - as the key technical
advisor - and enable sanctions to be applied when targets are not
met.
New
business opportunities in support services
The
Commission is proposing to open up new business opportunities for
companies to provide support services to air traffic control
organisations. Support services, such as meteorology, aeronautical
information, communications, navigation or surveillance services,
will have to be separated so they can be put out to competitive
tender, in an open and transparent manner, under normal procurement
rules. The core air traffic control services are natural
monopolies and will not be covered by the new rules.
Support
services are currently the biggest cost driver in air traffic
management and they can at the moment be procured from monopoly
providers without proper assessment of costs and benefits.
Conservative estimates indicate that 20% savings can be expected from
the introduction of normal public procurement rules.
Enabling
industrial partnerships
Functional
Airspace blocks (FABs) are intended to replace the current patchwork
of 27 national air traffic blocks with a network of larger, regional
blocks to gain efficiency, cut costs and reduce emissions. Despite a
binding deadline of December 2012 for Member States to establish
FABs, none of the 9 FABs which have been created are fully
operational. The Commission is currently examining infringement cases
against all Member States in relation to FABs, particularly where no
progress towards reform is seen the coming months.
However,
FABs have so far had rather inflexible constructions. The Commission
is therefore proposing to ensure that that the co-operation of
service providers through the FABs can be set up in a more flexible
way – to allow them to create industrial partnership and work with
a wider range of partners to increase performance.
The
role of Network Manager (Eurocontrol) will also be strengthened to
run centralised services in Europe in a more efficient way.
Strengthening the Network Manager means, in particular, that routes
can be shortened which in turn reduces fuel burn and overall air
pollutant emissions.
What
happens next?
The
Commission's proposals must be approved by Member States and
Parliament before becoming law.
Single
European Sky: key facts and figures
European
skies and airports risk saturation. Already some 800 million
passengers pass through Europe's more than 440 airports every year.
Each day there are around 27,000 controlled flights – that means 9
million cross Europe's skies each year. 80% of these flights are
operated within the EU.
Today's
situation is competently handled by the European air transport
sector, but, under normal economic conditions, air traffic is
expected to grow by up to 3% annually. The number of flights is
expected to increase by 50% over the next 10-20 years.
If
we don't do something chaos will reign. Europe would not only have to
reject a large portion of potential demand, it would also be
vulnerable to delays and flight cancellations on an unprecedented
scale. If we continue with business as usual congestion costs will
increase around 50% by 2050.
The
central problem is that Europe's air traffic management systems are
fragmented and inefficient.
EU
airspace remains fragmented into 27 national air traffic control
systems, providing services from some 60 air traffic centres while
the airspace is divided into more than 650 sectors. That means
airspace is currently structured around national boundaries and so
flights are often unable to take direct routes. On average, in
Europe, aircraft fly 42 km longer than strictly necessary due to
airspace fragmentation, causing longer flight time, delays, extra
fuel burn and CO2 emissions.
In
addition, current air traffic management technologies were designed
in the 1950s. They are now archaic.
The
inefficiencies caused by Europe's fragmented airspace bring extra
costs of around €5 billion a year. These costs get passed on to
business and passengers. Air traffic control currently makes up 6-12%
of the cost of a ticket.
The
US air traffic management system is twice as efficient as that of the
EU; it manages double the number of flights for a similar cost from a
third as many control centres.
Faced
with these challenges, in the late 1990s, proposals were formed to
create a Single European Sky, removing national boundaries in the
air, to create a single airspace:
a)
improving safety tenfold,
b)
tripling airspace capacity,
c)
reducing air traffic management costs by 50%,
d)
reducing the environmental impact by 10%.
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