On 16 September, European Unon transport ministers met in Vilnius to discuss progress and next steps for the Single European Sky.
Frank Brenner, director general of Eurocontrol – the European Network Manager which mooted centralised services as a way to speed Single European Sky reform - addressed the ministers, setting out for them the concept, which it has proposed to the European Commission and the 39 Eurocontrol member states as a means of improving performance in Europe.
At the meeting, Eurocontrol said ministers expressed support for the concept and encouraged it to continue consultations with industry and potential partners for funding and implementation of the various services proposed.
“The ministers explained in their statements that they are ready to create a limited market for some air navigation support services to be operated on a pan-European central level.
The idea of centralised services is to look at the different projects within the SESAR research programme and assess whether it makes more sense to implement them on a local, national, regional or pan-European basis.
Eurocontrol has currently identified nine projects that it believes are natural candidates to be implemented as centralised services. These typically involve handling data and they range from a service for trajectory planning in four dimensions, to support for an improved and pan-European approach for effectively sharing airspace between civil and military traffic.
Frank Brenner said: “Eurocontrol is working hard to deliver the Single European Sky – not only in the EU28, but beyond to the Eurocontrol 40+ countries. Improving performance in Europe in order to allow Europe to become more competitive is at the heart of what we do every day.
“We are now turning our attention to ensuring that some of the high-tech ATM solutions proposed in the context of the SESAR Joint Undertaking can be implemented and operated on a pan-European basis. We believe, and our cost-benefit analysis shows, that by doing this we can save between 1.5 and 2 billion Euros over a ten-year time frame. This represents a concrete contribution to the EU cost-efficiency targets. At the same time, it will give European industry a real opportunity to sell these services outside Europe. It’s a win for the Single Sky, a win for European industry and of course a win for the passenger.”
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Aimee Turner
Quelle/Source: Air Traffic Management, 28.10.2013
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