News Backgrounder
EC to crack down on SES lagards
Flying through Europe’s fragmented skies is a constant and costly nightmare for Asia-Pacific carriers. Efforts to sort out the air traffic management mess and forge a Single European Skies have become an industry joke. Now, it appears, there may be hope as the European Commission promises to get tough on countries dragging their heels
November 1st 2012
When Siim Kallas, vice-president of the European Commission (EC) spoke to a major gathering of air traffic controllers in Cyprus last month, he was not telling delegates anything they didn’t already know. Read More »
The Single European Sky (SES) package, adopted 10 years ago and meant to condense Europe’s 27 national airspaces into nine sections known as ‘functional airspace blocks’ (FABs) by the end of this year, is way behind schedule.
Member states are nowhere near meeting the deadline. France, Germany and the UK have been particularly uncooperative, but not all member states have been dragging their feet, said Kallas. Spain and Portugal have made progress on setting up their FAB.
However, the good news for airlines is that the EC is finally losing patience and threatening big fines for those who fail to comply with SES consolidation plans. “It looks like infringement actions may well be necessary,” said Kallas.
“Vice-President Kallas’ call for action could not be better timed,” said International Air Transport Association (IATA) director general, Tony Tyler. “IATA fully supports his efforts to put the long-delayed SES project back on track. It is the top priority in rebuilding the competitiveness of the European aviation sector.”
The failure of European member states to deliver on the SES places a EUR 5 billion (US$6.5 billion) burden on airlines flying in Europe and on their passengers and shippers, he added.
Airlines have had to carry the extra cost of flying in Europe for years. Long-haul flights from the Asia-Pacific and elsewhere are forced to take zig-zag routes as they are manoeuvred through the congested airspace of 27countries, divided into 650 sectors.
According to the EC, on average aircraft in Europe flies 42 kilometres further than necessary because of this fragmentation, causing delays for passengers as well as extra emissions.
Kallas pointed out the U.S. air traffic system has to deal with double the number of flights in the same airspace size as Europe, but does so at half the cost. The U.S. has only one air traffic control authority and a third of Europe’s number of control centres.
The EC estimates that if the situation in Europe persists, congestion costs will increase by around 50% by 2050. “Time is running out,” he said. “At the moment, it is clear that the FABs will make little, if any, contribution towards an integrated and defragmented airspace. If member states continue to fail to deliver, who suffers? Passengers, businesses and the European economy.”
The EC believes the current legislation is too weak and has failed because of opposition from national air traffic control authorities. Next year, the EC will propose a regulation in a bid to secure more control over the process.
It would see greater powers given to Eurocontrol, the international organization that monitors European air traffic control, stricter targets and greater powers for the EC to pursue infringement action against member states that are not co-operating.
IATA’s Tyler said it was a “great disappointment” that the continent’s biggest aviation states - France, Germany and the UK - have underperformed.
“Having fallen behind so badly in the first review period, we now need much tougher targets for the second review period,” he said.
“And to make them stick, there must be clear and painful penalties if states do not meet them. We would fully support infringement procedures by the Commission to force states to comply with their obligations.”
The second review period was scheduled to start next year and the idea was that by then all FABs would be up and running and participants could assess the SES package.
