One Europe, a single sky

With more planes taking to the skies than ever before, the aspiration of regulators to create a Single European Sky has become an urgent necessity.

The aim is to dismantle frontiers in airspace to allow seamless air traffic management. With air traffic volume expected to double by 2020, current air traffic management (ATM) systems will, without reform, be under serious, possibly dangerous, pressure by the middle of the next decade.

Removing national airspace boundaries to create a sleeker, more efficient and safer ATM model than the one that exists today is seen as vital if Europe is to cope with the 4% annual increases in air traffic expected over the coming years.

"Historically, ATM was related to sovereign states," says Bo Redeborn, director of ATM strategies at Eurocontrol, an intergovernmental organisation for the safety of air navigation. "But, frontiers between states shouldn't be the criteria on which to define airspace in the future."

The European Commission's Single European Sky initiative marked a complete shift in logic from previous ATM systems, basing future organisation of the sector on route patterns rather than on national boundaries.

Eurocontrol has been co-operating with the Commission to oversee the project which is expected to be finalised in 2020. With the Commission, it is co-financing the SESAR initiative (Single European Sky ATM research), a consultative forum which aims to develop a sound technological basis for safe and efficient ATM. The development phase will run from 2008-13, with deployment expected between 2013 and 2020.

"We believe that some of the real benefits will start in 2012. By 2020, the framework will be spread throughout the region," says Redeborn.

But air traffic control unions still worry that safety concerns are being compromised by short-term economic interests. "Some member states are placing too much emphasis on economic competition," saysKlaus Berchtold-Nicholls, executive officer of ATCEUC, an umbrella group representing air traffic control unions. "We do realise and recognise that the development of a single block of airspace is a good thing, but privatisation of air traffic control is dangerous.

"The Single European Sky text was influenced by national politicians, some of which wanted a bigger emphasis on economics. Let's face it, as long as nothing disastrous happens, politicians have a bigger interest in pushing economic interests."

Redeborn maintains that accident rates will remain at present levels or even fall by 2020, even with double the volume of traffic in circulation. "We could expect to handle twice the amount of traffic that we have today with no more delays. We would also expect fewer accidents than we have at present even if the traffic doubles," he says. "There is wide acceptance of the connection between air traffic growth and economic growth. Very few areas in the world have strong economic growth without traffic growth."

With more planes taking to the skies than ever before, the aspiration of regulators to create a Single European Sky has become an urgent necessity.