Julian Moxon/PARIS
AGREEMENT HAS BEEN reached, on the first stages for a Maastricht style central European joint upper airspace air traffic control (ATC) centre, which if implemented, would significantly reduce congestion over the area.
Wrangling continues over the location of the headquarters for the Central European Air Traffic Services (CEATS) system, but, at a 12 July meeting in Vienna, there was strong support for the idea from civil-aviation-authority directors, airlines and Eurocontrol.
The countries involved, are Austria, Bosnia Herzogevenia, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia and Slovenia (Bosnia Herzogevenia was not present at the meeting because of the current hostilities).
A two-tier approach to the CEATS has been agreed. To deal with what a senior Eurocontrol official involved in the negotiations calls "immediate capacity needs", the first stage would involve the temporary establishment of a joint upper-air-control (UAC) centre in Vienna, Austria.
Cyril McNamee, director of Eurocontrol's ATC harmonisation and integration programme, says that the centre would cover UAC requirements "...of all CEATS states which cannot currently meet ATC demands".
The centre will be ready by early 1998 and, says McNamee, could be made ready with only "minor changes" to the existing Vienna centre.
Plans for the final centre will be discussed in December, with the creation of a CEATS office at Eurocontrol's Brussels headquarters, charged with coordinating the civil-aviation authorities of the member states in defining the transition plan.
The hope is for an early accord, although this depends on obtaining agreement on the centre's location. Hungary, which has made major strides in improving its ATC system, is making a strong play, but faces opposition, principally from Austria.
McNamee says that the CEATS centre would be self-financing, mainly from user charges, although the initial outlay would have to come from banks and the member governments. He adds that the centre could become a role model for others, as part of Europe's move towards a single ATC system.
Once established, the CEATS will make possible direct routings through central European airspace above flight level (FL) 300 (30,000ft), which is expected to be the transition level from lower to upper airspace in the CEATS area.
The Maastricht transition occurs at around FL245, "...but times have changed since it was established", says McNamee. "If CEATS is successful, Maastricht will probably follow suit," he adds.
Source: Flight International
