Governments across
Ashley Smout, chairman of the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), which represents the world’s air traffic control industry, says without a “single sky”, the region will be faced with the same problems as
“These are three good reasons for politicians and the industry to act now and build the highway before it’s too late,” says Smout.
With world airspace fragmented into 190 areas, each with different performance standards, operating systems and procedures, civil aviation is now badly in need of an overhaul, argues Smout. “If we want to free up Asian skies, for the benefit of the industry as a whole, our political masters have to enter the debate. We must put in place the building blocks for a single Asian sky and deliver huge savings in air traffic management costs,” he says.
Smout adds it will also need strong support from the airlines. “If the airlines think this can be done without their involvement then they better think again. Airlines have strong lobbying power with governments and if we are to drive this change then airlines and ANSPs need to get together and lobby professionally,” Smout says.
National security will be the biggest hurdle, according to Smout, but airlines are also now expecting a level of service and cost structures that can only be provided through a commercial approach to air navigation services provision.
“Access to airspace for military and state activity within a State’s sovereign territory must be preserved. We can then start to see some measures of national efficiency emerge, and begin to consider regional solutions – a step towards a single Asian sky,” he says.
CANSO Members serve 61% of world airspace, control 84% of world air traffic and handle approximately 44 million flights per year.
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Source: Flight Daily News
