The main weakness in the European Commission's "Second Package" of Single European Sky legislation, according to CANSO secretary general Alexander ter Kuile, is that the EC has interpreted the requirement to force states to deliver specific operational performance improvements as a need only to specify the required output.
He argues, however, that the required output will not be forthcoming unless the "input" - the issue of proper governance at the air navigation service provider (ANSP) level - is addressed, and the package does not advise on that issue. A current example of the results of poor governance, he says, is that most ANSPs have failed to deliver on existing, pre-second-package agreements, and the quickest improvement in European air traffic management system performance could be achieved by implementing those.
Most European ANSPs remain nationally orientated and government owned, with insufficient managerial independence from their political masters to run an efficient, effective organisation. This, says ter Kuile, is where governance changes are most needed. Ownership by the state is not the issue, the HLG concluded, provided the ANSP is allowed management independence and is mandated to work according to business principles.
Ter Kuile also believes that a major weakness of the package is that it is politically unrealistic. He says that the aim of getting states to abandon national borders as ATM boundaries in favour of restructuring airspace into operationally efficient functional airspace blocks has manifestly not been addressed, especially in "core Europe", where such reorganisation is most needed, and that the package's assumption that functional airspace blocks will be delivered there is based more on hope than reality.
Source: Flight International
