CHRISTINA MACKENZIE / BRUSSELS
After a long fight for the right to set its own conditions for airport controls, Europe capitulates to global standards
Europe has aligned itself with international rules on aircraft noise control, following agreement on noise-related operating restrictions by European Union transport ministers at a 26 March meeting in Brussels. When the new Chapter 3 noise standards become mandatory on 1 April, current EU regulations would have banned any hushkitted aircraft which were not already on the European register, even if they met Chapter 3 regulations.
"This area has been a source of conflict with North America, but we will now be in-line with International Civil Aviation Organisation [ICAO] rules," said Spanish minister Francisco Alvarez-Cascos Fernandez, chairing the meeting.
"This is a major step forward in the air traffic sector for both the environment and people," said EU transport commissioner Loyola de Palacio, despite the fact that she had originally championed the hushkit ban.
The ICAO standard now adopted, "the balanced approach", consists of accepting all Chapter 3 aircraft including those - such as hushkitted older aircraft - that only marginally qualify, and using all alternative methods of noise alleviation before a local ban on a type may be considered.
Methods include varying runways and approach and departure paths to route aircraft over less populous areas, applying operating techniques that minimise aircraft noise, and land-use planning in the vicinity of airports. One of the EU's objections to the balanced approach was that it had already been applied in Europe, so other improvements were sought.
The directive adopted by transport ministers says that only four city airports, Belfast City, Berlin Tempelhof, London City and Stockholm Bromma, can automatically introduce more stringent noise regulation measures - 5dB lower than the ICAO-defined standards. Communities near other airports would have to argue for more stringent rules on a case-by-case basis.
Ministers also discussed the EU's single European Sky project, which will involve restructuring its airspace and air-traffic management (ATM) systems for traffic flow efficiency instead of basing the structure on national frontiers. Europe hopes to have the Single European Sky in place by the end of 2004.
Ministers centred their discussions on the military dimension of the project, the organisation of navigation services, the creation of blocks of airspace coherent with the needs of users and the role to be given to Eurocontrol.
They will work on establishing a preliminary agreement on these issues before their next meeting at the end of June. Ministers also agreed to extend until 31 May the scheme of temporary aid for air transport insurance introduced after 11 September.
Source: Flight International