Political, legal and financial complexities cloud journey to ATM implementation
Eurocontrol has hinted that building the Single European Sky (SES) air traffic management (ATM) system may take longer than originally thought. In a new report the agency says that “it has become clear that states/ANSPs [air navigation service providers] must be afforded sufficient time” to make all the arrangements necessary to create multinational functional airspace blocks (FAB).
FABs are the three-dimensional airspace “building blocks” on which the functional structure of the SES will be based. The purpose of Eurocontrol’s “FAB Mandate Final Report” – which it has just presented to the European Commission – is to spell out the problems that need to be overcome before blocks can be agreed, created and operated. There is no point, the agency warns, in creating blocks that do not result in
In the process of compiling the study and the proposed guidelines for all the SES participant states, organisations and users, the political, legal and financial complexity entailed in the transition has been laid bare for the first time. The report was written in consultation with all the parties to the process, including states, ANSPs and their employees’ representatives, and military and civil airspace users.
The design of FABs would not be difficult if all that had to be considered was airport locations and traffic flows. But blocks will often be multinational, so Eurocontrol has proposed outline solutions for resolving sovereignty, responsibility, liability and legal issues, as well as the problem of the division of income from user charges.
The agency acknowledges the complexity of the task when it says: “In the course of identifying the key issues, it became clear that states/ANSPs must be afforded sufficient time to make the assessments that are critical to the successful establishment of an FAB, to achieve the optimisation of the upper airspace and meet the seven criteria of Article 5.2 of the SES Airspace Regulation.” It also says that, “where appropriate”, blocks should extend their lower limit below the normal flight level 285 [28,500ft/8,700m] to a flight level that is “more operationally advantageous”.
FAB requirements
The FAB Mandate Final Report starts with a seven-point list defining the requirements for an airspace block within the Single European Sky.
These include demands that it shall:
* be supported by a safety case;
* enable optimum use of airspace;
* “be justified by [its] overall added value, including optimal use of technical and human resources, on the basis of cost-benefit analyses”;
* ensure compatibility between the configurations of upper and lower airspace;
* comply with international Civil Aviation Organisation standards;
* respect regional agreements.
DAVID LEARMOUNT/LONDON
Source: Flight International
