Air Transport

In early March, European transport ministers are expected to approve the creation of a €2.1 billion ($2.76 billion) organisation to oversee air traffic management (ATM) research.

The European Union's Council of Ministers is set to meet in early March to approve legislation to create a new joint undertaking organisation that will manage ATM technology research for the Single European Sky. The first calls for research proposals will be at the beginning of 2008.

Research areas could include high-capacity data and voice ground-to-air communications, automated decision tools for air traffic controllers, aircraft-based ATM, wake turbulence detection systems and satellite navigation using Galileo for all phases of flight.

Based on the Galileo joint undertaking organisation that oversaw that satellite navigation system's early development stages, the new organisation will be called Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) Joint Undertaking and will operate to 2020.

SESAR is the European Commission's research programme for pan-European ATM modernisation. "This is the technology arm of the Single [European] Sky," says the EC, which will provide €700 million of funding.

Eurocontrol is expected to provide another €700 million of funding, and industry and third-party country organisations the remaining €700 million.