The dawn of the Single European Sky will be a long time coming, and the route towards it remains a political minefield
It could be argued the Single European Sky (SES) would have emerged eventually as a result of Eurocontrol's mandate - given in the late 1980s - to harmonise air traffic management (ATM) systems standards and practices across the continent. But it would have taken a long time - too long to meet the pressing need to reorganise Europe's skies efficiently to handle safely the predicted mushrooming of air travel demand in the next 20 years.
The Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation, the representative body of many air navigation service providers (ANSP) around the world, sums up Europe's problem neatly by comparing North American ATM provision with that of European airspace. North America covers almost 20,000km2 (7,700 miles2), has just two ANSPs (US and Canadian), 29 area control centres (ACC), together employing 35,450 staff, has 104 airports handling more than 1 million passengers a year, and sees 20 million air traffic movements a year. By contrast, Europe, from Iceland to Turkey, covers 6,120km2, has 57 ANSPs with 75 ACCs, employs 42,000 people, has 114 large airports and handles 8.1 million movements a year. Yet it is not possible to change the European situation without political buy-in, and the SES agreement, which comes into effect on 1 January 2005, signifies that governments appreciate the need for change and promise to act.
Political clearance
Before the SES was given political clearance at the end of 2003, Eurocontrol had been heading an ATM harmonisation programme for almost 15 years, carried out by consensus between individual national aviation authorities (NAA) and ANSPs and implemented in each state's law and regulations - some more slowly than others. Eurocontrol's harmonisation programmes have had an effect from which all parties have benefited, and they have paved the way for the SES. As well as harmonisation - well before the SES was given the political green light - Eurocontrol had overseen the continent-wide implementation of complex projects such as the reduced vertical separation minima, increased the number of voice communication channels by reducing channel frequency spacing to 8.33kHz, and made basic area navigation capability a minimum airborne requirement. All these demanded co-operation from airspace users, manufacturers and ANSPs. Meanwhile, the agency has almost finished defining the essential Eurocontrol safety regulatory requirements (ESARR) through which common minimum standards and practices will be enforced.
Although Eurocontrol seemed to be ploughing ahead successfully without SES, its political mandate will make a big difference. Europe's ANSPs are all government owned, either wholly or partially, although in a few cases there has been administrative separation between government, the NAA as safety overseer, and the ANSP. The issue is that radical changes, needed to enable European ATM to cope with future air travel demand, will affect the way ANSPs operate, or even whether some will continue to exist. There will be a politically and operationally difficult transition period, so governments had to sign up to a treaty signifying their agreement with the principles and objectives behind the SES and their intent to co-operate. The big change is that, under the SES treaty, agreed regulations will become European law - not voluntary harmonisation of practices.
Crucial tasks
The European Commission, through Eurocontrol, will be able to demand action over compliance with ESARRs or agreed area control centre (ACC) equipment capability. Because this could prove difficult for countries that are lagging technologically, or in terms of personnel training and experience, one of Eurocontrol's other crucial tasks is to provide help where needed.
The SES may launch in January, but it will not become a reality until 2020. In the meantime, the way ATM is carried out will gradually evolve, both technologically and operationally, along a path whose direction has been predicted, but on which the rate of change may vary. The nature of the change is to move from the present system, in which ATM is conducted along "command and control" lines by ground-based ACCs, to a co-operative "network-integrated" system where controllers, pilots and automation share the separation and route-selection tasks. The single most important piece of the enabling technology is expected to be a mature form of automatic dependent surveillance - broadcast. This will enable controllers and automated systems to track aircraft as now, but also to derive future trajectories from on-board flight management systems so they can check for potential conflict. Using cockpit displays, pilots will be able to "see" aircraft in airspace around them and exchange trajectory data.
But to be ready by 2020, systems and avionics have to be mature, tested in the real environment, and timetables for systems transition at each ANSP must be laid. Meanwhile, the operators - airlines, the military and general aviation - need time to invest in the necessary equipment.
There is also tension between the airlines, which want a safe, working ATM system for the lowest possible costs; the ANSPs, which want the lowest possible hardware and software investment costs with the longest possible return on investment; and the manufacturers, which want to make money selling equipment.
Meanwhile, a group of manufacturers calling themselves the Air Traffic Alliance (ATA) in March presented European Commission vice-president Loyola de Palacio - credited with being the author of the SES as transport commissioner - with a three-stage roadmap for defining the path to 2020. The ATA's vision of the system that should exist by then is the same as envisaged by Eurocontrol, but using the argument that all the "stakeholders" in the new system - from providers to users - have to "buy in" to the process if it is to succeed. They codenamed the transition programme Sesam and persuaded de Palacio it was the way forward.
The ATA, founded by Airbus, EADS and Thales, has drawn other manufacturers into Sesam, and says it is preparing to bring airlines, airports and ANSPs on board. Some ANSP senior executives are concerned that the manufacturers are trying to turn the programme into a technology-led, rather than a purpose-designed, user-led system. But ATA vice-president, strategy and communications, Dr Soeren Fischer says all parties must be on board or Sesam will not work. "The Sesam consortium will include several major airlines, airports, ANSPs and supply industry working collectively to establish and respond to user requirements through the definition phase and thereafter," he says. "Should this essential reference to users' requirements be missing when jointly defining the terms of reference and the content of the programme, we see no point in pursuing our efforts."
At this stage, ATA has been contracted by the EC via Eurocontrol to carry out the g57 million ($70 million) research and technology definition phase, so Sesam is leading the way towards full SES.
DAVID LEARMOUNT / LONDON
Source: Flight International
