The European Commission is to propose legislation that would force member states to implement a consolidated European air-traffic control system, Siim Kallas, the European commissioner for transport, will announce today (11 October). 

The Single European Sky package, adopted ten years ago, sought to condense the 27 national airspaces into nine sections known as ‘functional airspace blocks’ (FABs). But member states are nowhere near meeting an end-of-2012 target for doing so, Kallas will tell a meeting of air-traffic controllers in Cyprus.

Europe’s national air-traffic control systems are fragmented and inefficient, with airspace divided into more than 650 sectors, which means that many planes do not take the most direct route. The Commission says that, on average, aircraft in Europe fly 42 kilometres further than necessary because of this fragmentation, causing delays for passengers as well as extra emissions. This inefficiency costs around €5 billion per year, much of which is passed on to passengers. Paying for air-traffic control accounts for 6%-12% of the cost of an airline ticket.

“At the moment it is clear that [the FABs] will make little if any contribution towards an integrated and defragmented airspace,” Kallas will tell the meeting. “If member states continue to fail to deliver, who suffers? Passengers, businesses and the European economy.”

The Commission believes that the current legislation is too weak and has failed because of opposition from national air-traffic control authorities. As a result, next spring the Commission will propose a regulation in a bid to secure more control over the process.

Its plan will see greater powers given to Eurocontrol, the international organisation that monitors European air-traffic control, stricter targets, and greater powers for the Commission to pursue infringement action against member states that are not co-operating.

Slow progress

Not all member states have been dragging their feet. Spain and Portugal have made progress on setting up their FAB, but the Commission says that France, Germany and the UK have been particularly unco-operative. “It looks like infringement actions may well be necessary,” Kallas will say.

The United States’ air- traffic system has to deal with double the number of flights in the same airspace size as the EU, but does so at half the cost. The US has only one air-traffic control authority, and just a third of the EU’s number of control centres. The Commission estimates that if the situation in Europe persists, congestion costs will increase by around 50% by 2050. “Time is running out,” Kallas will say today.

The new regulation will also attempt to split up state-owned monopolies responsible for air navigation, separating regulatory and oversight tasks from operational and service provision activities. This would lead to a single aviation authority and a European infrastructure manager.