The trade body for air navigation service providers, CANSO, has called for a redefinition of the role of Eurocontrol, seeking a shift in the balance of power away from the European airspace management agency towards individual air service providers.
CANSO wants to see the principle of a clear separation between regulation and service provision, as set out in the European Commission's (EC's) Single European Sky initiative, applied to Eurocontrol. This separation of roles is now mandatory for member states and individual air navigation service providers (ANSPs).
The trend towards corporatisation among European ANSPs has brought about a deepening of this division in recent years. CANSO has been campaigning for ANSPs to be given a greater role to implement single skies to ensure the benefits envisaged by Brussels are realised. "We want to clarify Eurocontrol's role," says Marie Desseaux, CANSO's director of European affairs. "When we talk to them, we want to know are they a regulator or are they a provider."
CANSOsays that Eurocontrol often seeks to take the lead in all aspects of European air traffic management and points out that the agency has recently sought to expand its budget and five-year plan from 2005 to fund this activity.
The trade body stresses that Eurocontrol has a "vital" role to play in assisting the EC on regulatory matters, including drafting single skies implementation rules, and also advising on areas such as safety, efficiency, charges and civil/military matters. However, CANSO believes that there should be more stakeholder consultation in this regard.
In the field of direct service provision, which includes both the multinational air traffic functions and specialised activities such as meteorological services, CANSO argues that these activities could be more effectively managed as partnerships or joint ventures between groups of ANSPs.
Source: Airline Business