JUSTIN WASTNAGE / BRUSSELS
CEATS project receives a boost as fifth central European country prepares to swing majority by ratifying agreement
Eurocontrol has drawn up a revised schedule for launching the long-delayed joint upper airspace control unit for central Europe and insists the project can overcome its final political hurdle.
The Central European Air Traffic Services (CEATS) agreement to delegate air traffic control service provision for upper airspace in the region to Eurocontrol was signed by Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia and Slovenia in 1999 and was originally scheduled to become operational by 2007.
However the programme has been delayed due to the failure of a majority of member states to ratify the agreement. To date, only Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia have ratified the plan and in 2001 Bosnia-Herzegovina signed the agreement, bringing the total to eight members, requiring five ratifications.
Eurocontrol CEATS director and programme manager Guido Kerkhofs says he expects a fifth ratification by the end of the second quarter, and has drawn up a provisional timetable. "We are working very hard with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovenia to progress parliamentary approval in the next couple of months," he says. Eurocontrol expects ratifications from Croatia and Italy by the end of the year.
The Eurocontrol air traffic management agency will operate the upper air space control centre on behalf of the eight states, in a similar arrangement to the devolved Maastricht upper airspace control centre in the Netherlands.
The organisation will complete the definition phase for the centre by the end of June and will publish a revised timetable following a critical planning review. "In 2001 we foresaw six years to start operations; obviously now that we are in 2004, the 2007 deadline is no longer feasible," says Kerkhofs. Eurocontrol is to propose a transition period not proscribed in original plans, with the transfer of sector groups phased in gradually during low traffic periods, says Kerkhofs. It could take around three years, he adds.
Eurocontrol is waiting for CEATS to gain full legal status before issuing invitations to tender for the programme's systems as well as finalising personnel requirements. The CEATS upper area control centre is to be located in Vienna, Austria and construction can only start once the fifth ratification is received, with expected completion by 2007. Eurocontrol will recruit staff from CEATS nations and has held briefings with controllers' organisations in a bid to avert further industrial action after Italian ATC staff threatened to strike (Flight International, 17-23 June 2003).
Source: Flight International
