SESAR JU organised a 1.5 day event in Brussels on the 5th and 6th of July 2018 to discuss how to overcome the European airspace limitations, which are seriously impending the European aviation sector’s ability to grow sustainably and compete internationally. According to SESAR JU, the fragmentation of the European airspace is estimated to cost at least 3bn EUR a year and a up to 50 million tones of carbon dioxide. The event aimed to propose how the European airspace architecture should look in the medium to long term (2035).

GATCO attended the event and was one of the presenters on the second day, describing the views on European airspace architecture of the following Professional Staff Organisations (PSOs):

  • International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers’ Associations (IFATCA).
  • International Federation of Air Traffic Safety Electronics Associations (IFATSEA).
  • Air Traffic Controllers European Unions Coordination (ATCEUC).
  • European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF).
  • European Cockpit Association (ECA).

The firs day concentrated on describing and defining the current airspace services for en-route operations in the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) region, its supporting architecture and explaining the problems that the new airspace architecture should try to solve, compared to the current situation. The second day moved away slightly from high-level discussions and delved into the specific airspace changes that are required to overcome the current capacity shortage and volatility in the ECAC region airspace. The PSOs highlighted the weakest links in the current airspace structure and proposed a number of steps to move towards a highly integrated and more resilient airspace architecture, in line with SESAR JU’s airspace vision for 2035, as detailed in the European ATM Master Plan.

The overall objective of the event was to receive early stakeholder input to help shape the outcome of the study and follow-up event has been scheduled for September 2018. You can find more information about the event on the links below: