Eurocontrol and its Performance Review Commission (PRC) have begun examining the Single European Sky (SES) implementation process to provide the European Commission with a detailed report on progress.
The PRC will report that, although air traffic management (ATM) cost-efficiency is projected to improve, adequate safety reporting is conducted by only 15 of the 25 European Union countries, says head of the PRC’s performance review unit Xavier Fron.
The review is part of a triennial reporting process designed to enable the EC to advise the European Parliament whether any changes to the SES legislation or provisions are required.
Eurocontrol’s part in the review is to provide a factual analysis of ATM progress, and the PRC has to conduct an evaluation of the impact of SES legislation and political processes on ATM performance, says Fron.
The EC will hear from the PRC’s latest annual report that, although overall delays are not bad, both en-route delays and airport-caused delays are on the increase, safety reporting from most member nations’ air navigation service providers is poor, and although the performance of most area control centres (ACC) is good, it is getting worse at others.
The PRC has also quantified the levels of inefficiency created by “fragmentation” – the fact that ATM is provided by too many ANSPs with too many small ACCs.
It is this main problem that the SES is intended to overcome, and when the review is presented, it should indicate whether change in SES legislation is required to accelerate the process.
Source: Flight International
