FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
2001
2001 - 2721.PDF
EDITORIAL +44 <20> 8652 3842 Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS, UK Fax +44 (20) 8652 3840 email flight.intemationa0rbi.co.nk Editor Murdo Morrison •44 (20) 8652 4395 murdo.morrison@rbi.co.uk Editor's PA Debra Warburton •44 (20) 8652 3835 debra.mrburton@rbi.co.uk Hews Editor Andrew Chuter +44 (20) 8652 3843 _andy.cbuter@rbi.co.uk Deputy Hews Editor Emma Kelly •44 (20) 8652 3096 emma.kelly@rbi.co.uk Features Editor DeeOee Doke +44 (20) 8652 3852 deedee.doke@rbi.co.uk Commercial Aviation Editor Max Kingsley-Jones +44 (20) 8652 3825 max.kingsley.jones@rbi.co.uk Defence Aviation Editor Stewart Penney +44 (20) 8652 3834 stewart.penney@rbi.co.uk Operations/Safety Editor David Learmount +44 (20) 8652 3845 david.learmount@rbi.co.uk Business & General Aviation Editor Kate Sarsfield +44 (20) 8652 3885 kate.sarsfield@rbi.co.uk Reporter Justin Wastnage +44 (20) 8652 3U3justin.mstnage@rbi.co.uk Spaceflight Correspondent Tim Furniss +44 0237) 471960 tim@spaceport.co.uk Editorial Assistant Francesca Everett +44 (20) 8652 3842 francesca.everett@rbi.co.uk EUROPE/MIDDLE EAST Paris Correspondent Simon Warburton +33 (1) 53 2188 00 simonwa39@hotmail.com Israel Correspondent Arie Egozi +972(3)9671155 Middle East Correspondent Gerald Butt +357 2 771967 gbutt@spidernet.com.cy AMERICAS Washington DC Office Fax +1 (703) 836 8344 Americas Editor Graham Warwick +1 (703) 836 3448 graham.warwick@rbi.co.uk East Coast Editor Paul Lewis +1 (703) 836 3084 paul.lewis@rbi.co.uk Washington Correspondent Ramon Lopez +1 (703) 836 7443 ramon.iopez@rbi.co.uk West Coast Editor Guy Norris +1(949)252 8971 Fax+1 (949) 252 8972 guy.norris@rbi.co.uk ASIA/PACIFIC Singapore Office Fax +65 338 6171 Regional Managing Editor Nicholas lonides +65 434 3311 Fax +65 338 6171 nicholas.ionides@rbi.co.uk Deputy Asia Editor Andrew Doyle •65 434 3309 andrew.doyle@rbi.co.uk Regional Reporter David Fullbrook +65 434 3314 david.fullbrook@rbi.co.uk Australia Civil Aviation Correspondent Paul Phelan +61(7)4053 2791 Fax+61 (7)40533003 phphelan@optusnet.com.au Australia Military Aviation Correspondent Peter La Franchi +61 (0) 419 246 620 Fax +61 (2) 62312795 nuika@ozemail.com.au ADVERTISING UK S Europe +44 (20) 8652 3319 France & Switzerland Tel +33 (1) 53 2188 00 Italy Tel+39 (02) 236 2500 Singapore Tel+65 434 3303 Hong Kong Tel +852 29651542 * Australasia Tel +61 (3) 9245 7350 Horth America Tel +1 (703) 836 7444 Classified & recruitment +44 (20) 8652 8228 FOR FULL LISTING SEE P43 SUBSCRIPTIONS +44 (1444) 445454 rbi.subscriptions@rbi.co.uk THE FLIGHT COLLECTION kim.hearn@rbi.co.uk t\^r*l AirTransp<^lntelligence(ATI), ffiffM/nfe™f/o/w/'ssister jr^\] J onlineserviceatwww.rati.com.containsthefulltextofFlight MMM International and Airline Business since 1996. Full text of the magazines can also be found onljne with Lexis-Nexis, Dialogue, FT Profile, IAC and Reuters. Editor Kieran Daly +44 (20) 8652 3837 REED fjSl BUSINESS INFORMATION WBPA T INTERNATIONAL COMMENT Call to action Revelations of poor European ATM performance compared to the USA must spur governments and industry to do better It's official - Europe's air traffic management (ATM) system is unproductive and not cost- efficient. Well, at least it is compared to its US counterpart. That's the view of Eurocontrol's Performance Review Commission (PRC) in its initial study of the performance of Europe's ATM system compared with the US system. And being a select group of industry experts with airline, air traffic control, navigation and regulatory backgrounds, they should know. The PRC's major finding in its initial investiga tion of the issue is that the US Federal Aviation Administration controls twice as many instru ment flight rules flights at only a slightly higher total cost and with the same number of air traffic controllers as the 30 Eurocontrol mem ber states. That's a pretty poor performance for Europe by anyone's standards. While the US and European ATM systems may be similar in certain respects, they are poles apart in others. It's hardly surprising that the US system is more productive and cost- A radical overhaul of ATM provision is the only way to improve capacity effective than Europe's when the USA has just one integrated air navigation services (ANS) provider, while Europe has 47. Then there is the number of area control centres - the USA has 21, while Europe has 58 stemming from a fragmented system. At the same time, Europe is struggling to work with very different ATC systems according to national preferences and interests, while the USA has a far more homogeneous architecture. Reasons why the US ATM system is twice as cost-effective as Europe's are of course complex and the PRC has merely scratched the surface. But the PRC's initial findings should now be enough to spur European gov ernments arfS the continent's air navigation industry into action. That is exactly what the commission wanted when they decided to compare, perhaps controversially, and for the first time, US and European ATM. A whole range of areas contribute to the performance gap, such as operational differ ences including traffic complexity and route structure; the collective efficiency of the European ATM system, including its fragmen tation, and civil and military airspace arrangements; the individual efficiency or otherwise of European ANS providers; the legal and social framework; and staffing issues which at times result in capacity short age and at others, capacity waste. These areas affect governments, air navigation ser vice providers, Eurocontrol, ATC personnel, airports and operators and only when all these parties are involved will Europe be capable of resolving its inefficiencies. Europe is on the way to dealing with some of these issues, primarily those that concern its traffic complexity, airspace design and civil/military airspace co-ordination. Through Eurocontrol the continent is tackling these problems head-on through air route redesigns, the reduced vertical separation minima pro gramme and the move towards the joint provision of air traffic services (ATS) through the Central European Traffic Services pro gramme, for example. No-one doubts that these issues are difficult to resolve, but they are far more socially acceptable than the other problems that now must be confronted. The real issues that need to be further explored are those that create fear, suspicion and distrust whenever they are mentioned - staff productivity, individual performance of ANS providers and the separation of ATS provision from the state. Europe is working hard to tackle its capacity and delay problems, but a radical overhaul of the continent's entire ATM provision is now acknowledged to be the only way these capacity-enhancing measures can ever be successful. Europe knows where it wants to get to - a Single European Sky as advocated by the European Commission - but getting there is far harder than many imagined. So far only tiny steps have been made towards get ting to the ultimate goal and much bigger steps will be required to tackle the controver sial areas in the near future. A good starting point would be to take the PRC's findings further to investigate the burn ing issues that contribute to the performance gap between Europe and the USA. But copying the US system should not be Europe's end goal as that system is by no means a shining example of efficiency. The USA is suffering the same delay problems as Europe, with 26% of all departures on both continents last year encountering delays of 15min or more. Europe should be striving for something better. US ATM has its own prob lems, but it is still performing far better than Europe's. Perhaps the PRC's findings will shame European governments and industry to accelerate medial action. SEE AIR TRANSPORT P16 www.fliqhtinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 31 JULY - 6 AUGUST 2001
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
