Eurocontrol Council Plans Performance-Based Aviation System
December 4, 2007 // Published as a news service by IHS
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The 38 Eurocontrol Member States agreed during a November meeting to create a performance-based air traffic management system for Europe, adopting targets for safety, capacity, delays and cost-efficiency.
The meeting, chaired by Nils Gunnar Billinger, director general of civil aviation in Sweden, included high-level civil and military representatives from the 38 Eurocontrol Member States and the European Commission (EC).
Four targets were confirmed for European air traffic management:
- A minimum level of 70% safety maturity for all air traffic control service providers and state regulators by the end of 2008.
- A performance target for en-route air traffic management delays of one minute per flight over the next five years.
- A reduction of the distance flown by each aircraft of 2km/year - equivalent to removing 4,000 flights from the European system.
- A cost-effectiveness target that will see the real unit cost per kilometer reduced by 3% a year for the next five years.
The meeting endorsed the agency objective of continuing to implement an efficiency factor of 3% per year as an important contribution to the effort to improve the efficiency of the entire European air traffic management (ATM) network.
It also endorsed the Eurocontrol Agency business plan for the next five years (2008-2012), which for the first time addressed funding for Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) and its activities.
The Provisional Council adopted the 2007 Annual Safety Report produced by the Safety Regulation Commission (SRC), and recommendations to further improve safety in Europe. Though support to air navigation service providers and states has resulted in 30 air navigation service providers having reached the 70% maturity target, better reporting is needed of accidents and incidents.
The meeting recommended states strengthen reporting and to fully resource and empower their national safety regulatory authorities for ATM, including the implementation of effective process for safety oversight.
The meeting supported the progress made in implementing the Eurocontrol Safety Programme and in particular development of Eurocontrol specifications and related guidance material for short-term conflict alert, guidelines for contingency planning for air navigation service providers, and efforts to strengthen the implementation of "Just Culture."
The meeting endorsed an Airspace Action Plan presented by Eurocontrol, which identified how to improve route network efficiency and capacity through airspace planning, design and management at network level. This action plan identified solutions for the 50 top city pairs with the highest total route extension.
Discussions were also held on the future evolution of European aviation institutions. Based on these discussions, an update of the Eurocontrol Roadmap toward the future ATM will be discussed before spring 2008.
The Provisional Council also noted the creation of a specific consultation body, the Military ATM Board, composed mainly of the high-level military representatives. This new body held its first meeting on Nov. 14.
Source: Eurocontrol.