Julian Moxon/BRUSSELS
EUROCONTROL HAS inaugurated its new ECU 117 million ($87.5 million) Brussels centre with assurances that measures to improve Europe's air-traffic-control (ATC) system are "very much on target".
Located near the Brussels airport at Haren, the building brings together Eurocontrol's headquarters, the Central Flow Management Unit (CFMU), and the Central Route Charges Office, all of which were formerly sited in different locations.
The CFMU has already begun taking over the previously separate activities of five air-traffic-management (ATM) centres in Paris, London, Frankfurt, Rome and Madrid. The Paris centre ceased operations in April, with Frankfurt and London to follow in November and December respectively, and Madrid and Rome in 1996. This will leave the entire European ATM system under Eurocontrol management, enabling, says CFMU chief Dirk Deutschaever, "...our first ever complete picture of planned and actual movements. Now, at last, it is possible to manage traffic over the entire continent."
Deutschaever says that the centre has already had a "dramatic effect" on delays at Majorca's Palma Airport, where traffic in 1994 often suffered 3h hold-ups. "The CFMU allowed us to smooth traffic flows by negotiating for more capacity where we needed it," he says.
Eurocontrol is also pressing ahead with its efforts to harmonise and integrate the disparate ATC systems of the 33 European Civil Aircraft Conference states. "We have arrived at the first target date, set for 1995," says Eurocontrol director general Yves Lambert, "...and almost every state participating in the programme is on schedule".
The next target is 1998, with further installation of the Eurocontrol-developed "translation" systems, designed to enable different national ATC systems to talk to each other. Several European countries already have what amounts to a seamless radar and computer communications network, "...but there is still a long way to go", says Eurocontrol senior director Wolfgang Philipp, in charge of the European ATC harmonisation and integration programme.
Philipp says that, by the end of the century, "...there will still be different ATC systems, but they will work to a much higher level of sophistication". He admits, however, that "...what is needed is the next generation...the European air traffic management system [EATMS]".
Eurocontrol members agreed in April on a mission objective and strategy document for the EATMS (which forms the European ATM element of the International Civil Aviation Organisation's global future air-navigation system now under development). The organisation is now hosting a workshop for 120 users of European airspace, which will lead at the end of the year to a users' requirement document.
"We're aiming for spring 1996 to produce the first operational requirements document," says Philipp. He adds that Eurocontrol is also working with national research agencies "...to know what research is needed to confirm the operational and functional requirements".
Source: Flight International
