![]() Centrally funded, it would remove significant financial risk from the operational units, unbundling operational and financial systems.Īs far as airspace management is concerned, Europe could implement a top-down design to group Air traffic Control Centres (ACC), independent from national borders (which was the initial objective of the Functional Airspace Blocks FAB). , this could be the second European-wide infrastructure after the Galileo Project. With an “infrastructure manager” using modest EU funds, 2 This approach would allow the total virtualisation of ATC systems. ![]() Whilst striving for the best solution, in the meantime, Europe could choose joint procurement with preferred, “standardised” technology for Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) infrastructure and joint development/procurement of ATC systems.Ī more ambitious option would be to consider CNS infrastructure as a service and no longer as an investment. This is based on the Wise Persons Group Report: a transition towards a pan-European ATC, including reinventing EUROCONTROL from the operational and technical standpoints. Whist recognising the value of the recent EC legislative proposal, the authors of this article will propose in section three a more ambitious approach. It has not reduced its fragmentation, which is detrimental to European air transport. The European Court of Auditors recently underlined, they have resulted in incremental improvements of the European ATC. The history of EUROCONTROL is an example of the ups and downs of European integration.īefore describing the possible way out, we will focus on the successive packages of the Single European Sky (SES). However, previous initiatives have not succeeded because the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) law recognizes that every European state retains its sovereignty over the airspace above its territory ( Baumgartner, 2007). ![]() In this paper, we will first describe the primary weakness being the fragmentation of European ATC, which for more than 50 years has been recognised as such and led to the creation of EUROCONTROL and the initiatives of the European Commission (EC). With fixed costs and less traffic, either the European states subsidise the ANSPs or the user charges per flight will increase significantly and impact airlines already severely hit by the crisis. Users would support such an effort.Īir traffic is unlikely to recover in the coming months, and the Air Navigation Services Providers (ANSPs) providing air navigation services in Europe are facing a “financing wall”. ![]() Using the current crisis as a unique opportunity, one could significantly improve it– both in operational and financial terms, in the interest of the airspace users and passengers. While Air Traffic Control (ATC) in Europe fulfils its role overall from a safety standpoint, it is suffering structural inefficiencies. ![]()
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