Emma Kelly/BRUSSELS
Eurocontrol is warning that further improvements in European air traffic management (ATM) will not be possible unless the dispute between the UK and Spain over Gibraltar airport is resolved. Only then will the European Commission be able to join the air navigation organisation. The Brussels-based body is hopeful, however, of a resolution to the problem by next summer.
The long-running dispute, which is holding up a number of aviation approvals, centres on the failure of a 1987 bilateral deal between the UK and Spain under which Gibraltar airport is excluded from new aviation initiatives (Flight International, 26 September-2 October). The EC started negotiations with Eurocontrol on its membership in 1998 as part of the air navigation organisation's revised convention.
"We have total confidence that international diplomats will find a solution in the next six months," says Yves Lambert, Eurocontrol director general. If the "problem" is not resolved "we'll have to tell the whole of Europe that ATM cannot be further advanced because of a political problem between two member states", he says.
EC membership of Eurocontrol would provide the organisation with much-needed "legal instruments to enforce decisions". Lambert says: "If our expertise and their political power were combined we could go far in the creation of an effective ATM system." Lambert concedes that European air traffic congestion does not stop at the borders of the European Union - there is heavy congestion in the airspace of non-EU member Switzerland, for example - but adds that EC membership of Eurocontrol would be "a big step forward".
Exactly how Eurocontrol is going to acquire the power to implement decisions is yet to be decided, he concedes: "It is an open question which needs to be negotiated once they [the EC] have received a firm mandate from the European Council."
Meanwhile, Eurocontrol is continuing to study alternatives to the current en route charging scheme, but is stressing that these studies are at a preliminary stage.
"The current charging scheme uses a 25-year-old formula based on an aircraft's maximum take-off weight, which has never been changed," says Lambert.
Eurocontrol's study of alternatives has caused some concern, however, especially among operators of smaller aircraft including the European Regions Airline Association. "At this stage there is no policy, only studies being performed by experts. Operators of small aircraft have expressed their concern, but I think it is premature," says Lambert.
• The shortage of air traffic controllers in Europe is becoming a "significant issue" according to Eurocontrol, which predicts a 10% shortfall on the continent. This is due to high traffic growth this decade and a retirement bulge in some states. The industry has responded with a major recruitment drive across Europe.
Source: Flight International
