JUSTIN WASTNAGE / MAASTRICHT
Upper airspace control centre should serve as model for other projects, says Aguado as Maastricht operation opens
Eurocontrol's Maastricht upper airspace control centre (MUAC) inaugurated its new operations centre last week. The centre should serve as the "reference point" for future European air traffic management (ATM) projects, says director-general Victor Aguado.
He says progress towards the Single European Sky and trans-national ATM needs to be speeded up and that Eurocontrol could potentially use the European Commission's legislative power.
Meanwhile, Eurocontrol is completing negotiations with the Austrian government for a Vienna control centre as Europe's second transnational ATM unit, part of the Central European Air Traffic Services (CEATS) programme to become active in 2007. The experience of bringing the "completely disparate" systems of eight central European and Balkan states together "will provide Eurocontrol with a wealth of experience that it should use in future", says Aguado.
But so far, after 30 years of Eurocontrol's existence, Maastricht remains the "only concrete example of this initial aim", according to Netherlands junior transport minister Melanie Schultz van Haegen. Maastricht controls the upper airspace of north-west Germany and the Benelux countries, and includes a German military air traffic control unit.
The new operations centre at MUAC has an improved, user-friendly operator input system that will reduce controllers' workload and permit the centre to add four more sectors, gradually increasing capacity over the Benelux area by around 30%, he says.
Aguado says that the European Commission's recent accession to Eurocontrol could act as an "enabler" to force through further transborder ATM sectors. "If we'd had the means to pass legislation at the time of reduced vertical separation minima [RVSM], it would have been handy, but luckily that time all the member states saw the benefit of the change," he says.
In the case of ATM, Eurocontrol says that the way to address congested areas, often caused by handovers from one national ATM to the next, is to redesign the air space into transborder sectors. "We do not want to impose a doctrine, just suggest ways to solve bottlenecks," he says, adding that not every country is willing to accept ceding control of its airspace as a solution to congestion in busy corridors.
France leads countries reluctant to cede any control of their air space to third parties, due to concerns from the military and trade unions. "By progressing with Single European Sky legislation and by joining Eurocontrol, the EC is sending the message that it wants to be part of the solution. It could transpose solutions into regulation," he says.
Source: Flight International
