EU countries’ inflexibility hinders long-awaited ATC reforms

There is a lot of logic behind air traffic control (ATC) reforms aimed at creating a ‘Single European Sky’ (SES), a goal first presented exactly ten years ago. Airlines point out it will cut flight delays, reduce CO2 emissions and save billions of Euros for airlines and passengers alike. However of equal importance is the fact that the SES is being developed in tandem with NextGen, the USA’s equivalent system, so that the two can be integrated and run seamlessly together. The Single European Sky (SES) initiative and NextGen are possibly the two biggest Air Traffic Management (ATM) technology modification projects in the history of global aviation. New technology presently being deployed across the United States’ National Airspace System (NAS) and the Eurozone will permit Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs) to freely exchange data communication between Flight Management Systems (FMS) and pilots to allow them to fly more fuel-efficient flight paths.
The United Kingdom’s Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP), National Air Traffic Services (NATS), indicate that nearly 3,000 aircraft fly between the United States, Canada and Europe. That figure will rise further, with the FAA and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) indicating global air traffic will likely double over the next twenty years. More recently the NextGen Advisory Committee (NAC) in the United States and the Single European Sky ATM Research Joint Undertaking (SESAR JU) have included members who work for private and public organizations to act as advisors and overseers. This has helped to make sure that the flight procedures, equipage mandates, pilot protocols, ATCs, maintenance technicians and everyone who is involved in helping planes to fly anywhere are dealing with systems in these two areas of the world which are similar.
However after a meeting between European Union Transport Ministers in Rome on Friday 7th November, the new European Transport Commissioner, Violeta Bulc, has called for EU countries to demonstrate more flexibility in integrating air corridors, saying “We cannot deal with a reality based mainly around international flights with national systems,” she said, according to a statement after the meeting…. Be flexible, we will find the right compromise.” The meeting has hopefully laid some foundations for the meeting on 3rd December when a draft of the reform will be presented to the European Council in Brussels. However once again the major stumbling block may not be the visible portion of the iceberg, but what lies beneath the water. Air traffic controllers are already arguing that the reforms could hit jobs, particularly Air traffic control unions in France and Germany, who are saying that the proposed changes are predominantly aimed at cutting costs and will likely affect safety in European skies, which are among the busiest in the world.