Europe’s new airline lobby group established by the region's five biggest carriers will call for the European regulators to investigate the feasibility of enabling ATC service providers from neighbouring countries to help limit disruption caused by strikes in individual countries.
Tackling airspace inefficiencies – both from the impact of industrial action and the longer-term goal of accelerating progress on the long-stalled single European sky initiative – are two key areas for Airlines for Europe. The new association, formally launched at the start of the year, has been a vocal critic of recent ATC stoppages in France.
A4E director general Thomas Reynaert earlier told Flightglobal the group was working on a manifesto to be unveiled later this month, addressing the impact of ATC stoppages and ways to mitigate it. Speaking at a press conference in Dublin during the IATA AGM today, IAG chief executive Willie Walsh – whose group is one of the five founders of A4E – said it will press European regulators to look at how existing technology can be used to provide resilience in the ATC system.
“What we said, and will be saying more on 28 June, is that technology exists. It is possible for neighbouring ATC service providers to provide overflight clearance and in a situation where airlines have been disrupted because they can’t fly through French airspace - which has a significant impact on all of European aviation because you get flights spilling over that would have gone through France. We believe there are technological solutions that exist that could be put in place," he says. "We are calling on the Commission to look at these initiatives."
A4E has been critical of ATC industrial action in Europe – notably the current round of strikes in France. But Walsh says the move is not specifically driven by the situation in France, noting it forms part of it strategy to tackle the longer-term ambition of speeding implementation of single European sky.
“I think these are issues that could be addressed separate to the implement of single European sky," Walsh adds. "The technology was developed with single European sky in mind. Its been around for some considerable time. We believe.. we should be looking at using the existing technology and systems, which provide relief in the event of disruption at a specific ATC service provider."
Source: Cirium Dashboard
