Air traffic control hold-up may see trio taken to court

Date: 30/07/1998

By Chris Johnstone

BELGIUM, Germany and Greece are facing the threat of legal action by the European Commission over their failure to implement legislation aimed at paving the way for a smoothly operating European air traffic system.

The trio have been targeted for 'reasoned opinions', the last step taken by the Commission before it hauls governments before the European Court of Justice.

The Commission says that Belgium has failed to put into effect a 1993 directive laying the foundation for future air traffic control harmonisation. Belgium, Greece and Germany are accused of failing to take the necessary follow-up action to introduce new techniques for smoother transfers of information between air traffic control centres.

All three countries have been pinpointed by airlines as flight-delay black spots, with Greece the worst offender.

The new techniques are aimed at helping the pan-European air traffic control authority Eurocontrol to introduce a seamless system for directing aircraft.

But despite foot-dragging by the trio, Eurocontrol says its EU members are on course to meet an end-of-year deadline for the introduction of one new system.

“The other system is more futuristic, with a later deadline,” said a Eurocontrol official.

European airlines have highlighted flight delays, largely caused by nationally based air traffic control systems which are overworked and inefficient, as a growing problem.

Delays last year crept back towards the crisis levels of the late 1980s, with almost one flight in five affected. Unlike previous years, when delays were limited to the winter season, the problem spread throughout the year in 1997, with a marked worsening of the situation between July and September.

The airline lobby, the Association of European Airlines (AEA), says measures implemented to ease the problems of the late 1980s are now being shown up as short-term solutions with no long-term results.

The AEA is also complaining of huge variations in charges for aircraft passing through national airspace. Fees in the UK and Belgium are up to four times as high as those in Greece and Ireland.