CHRISTINA MACKENZIE / BRUSSELS
With the European Commission now a member of Eurocontrol, greater emphasis will be placed on the environmental performance of the European air traffic management (ATM) system, says the European air navigation body. "The environment has become a key business driver," says George Paulson, Eurocontrol's director of safety, airspace and airports.
But European ATM stakeholders last week at a meeting with the agency said that European-wide tools for measuring noise emissions and air quality, and an agreed set of key performance indicators, are essential to improve the environmental performance of ATM.
A study commissioned by Eurocontrol from the Centre for Aviation, Transport and the Environment at Manchester Metropolitan University, due to be published at the end of the year, says that a Europe-wide strategy "to secure maximum environmental capacity across the air-transport network will best be achieved through the co-ordinated action of airports, airlines and air-navigation service providers". The "single most significant contemporary environmental constraint" is aircraft noise, the report says. Local air quality is also an issue at some European airports, while other growth-constraining issues include ground transport access and climate change.
The report says that some airports, including Amsterdam Schiphol and Salzburg, have developed procedures and mechanisms to manage and enhance environmental capacity. But, it says the "majority of European airports appear to not yet recognise the full significance of this issue".
Airports and airlines need common tools, but although moves are afoot to develop a European standard for noise and air quality, matters are at an experimental stage, and lack of co-operation is hindering progress, says the report.
Source: Flight International
