2JW 
•ir <r COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 
Brussels, 06.03.1996 
COM(96) 57 final 
K 
AIR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT 
Freeing Europe's airspace 
WHITE PAPER 
(presented by the Commission) 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 
I. BACKGROUND 3 
(a) Definitions 3 
(b) The basic ATM functions 3 
(c) The participants 4 
II. AIRSPACE CONGESTION 5 
(a) The problem 5 
(b) The initial response 6 
(c) The present state of play 8 
III. THE SHORTCOMINGS 10 
A fragmented picture 10 
Lack of decision-making mechanisms 11 
Lack of decision-making aids 12 
Inefficient use of available resources 12 
Lack of means of following up decisions 13 
Lack of tools for implementation and support 14 
Inadequate cost control 15 
IV. DEFINING A SOLUTION 15 
(a) The need to separate regulatory and operational functions 15 
(b) The operational function 16 
(c) The regulatory function 18 
V. OPTIONS FOR THE SINGLE ATM SYSTEM 19 
Option 1 : a "European monolithic structure" 19 
Option 2 : a solution limited to the Community 20 
Option 3 : a broader European solution 23 
VI. CONCLUSIONS 25 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055.96/EN 
This White Paper examines the background to the current situation in air traffic management 
in Europe, and the shortcomings of the present arrangements, before defining a "single 
ATM system for Europe" and, finally, outlining the Commission's views on the best 
institutional arrangements for the future. It is supported by an Annex which looks in more 
detail at the different aspects of building a unified system; and four technical Appendices. 
I. BACKGROUND 
(a). Definitions 
1.- The term "air traffic management" (ATM) is generally accepted as covering all the 
activities involved in ensuring the safe and orderly flow of air traffic. It comprises 
three main services : 
Air traffic control (ATC), the principal purpose of which is to maintain sufficient 
separation between aircraft and between aircraft and obstructions on the ground 
to avoid collisions. However, this safety objective must not impede the flow of 
traffic and must therefore meet the needs of users. Appendix 2 describes how this 
service is provided in practice, and the division of responsibilities between the 
various parties involved. 
Air traffic flow management (ATFM), the primary objective of which is, again 
on safety grounds, to regulate the flow of aircraft as efficiently as possible in 
order to avoid the congestion of certain control sectors. The ways and means used 
are increasingly directed towards ensuring the best possible match between supply 
and demand by staggering the demand over time and space, and also by ensuring 
better planning of the control capacities to be deployed to meet the demand. The 
Commission communication on congestion and crisis in air traffic1 describes how 
this service is performed. 
Airspace management (ASM), the purpose of which is to manage airspace - a 
scarce resource - as efficiently as possible in order to satisfy its many users, both 
civil and military. This service concerns both the way airspace is allocated to its 
various users (by means of routes, zones, flight levels, etc.) and the way in which 
it is structured in order to provide air traffic control services. 
(b). The basic ATM functions 
2.- Air traffic management comprises two distinct, basic functions - one "regulatory", in 
a broad sense; and the other "operational". 
COM(95)318 final, 5.7.1995. 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055.96/EN 
The first of these functions involves setting broad objectives in terms of the safety, 
quantity, quality and price of the services to be provided and taking steps to ensure 
that they are met. It also involves the allocation of airspace to its various users, 
including military users, and all the measures needed to meet a wide range of other 
policy objectives to do with such issues as environmental protection, town and country 
planning, national defence and meeting international commitments. 
The second function is the actual provision of services, for reward, within the 
regulatory framework provided by the first function. This is a quasi-commercial 
activity, the safety aspect of which is of course essential. 
(c). The participants 
3. - These services and functions are the responsability of individual countries, which have 
put in place the necessary organisations and infrastructure by their own. In few cases, 
two or more countries have used regional organisations to provide some of the 
corresponding services and functions jointly on their behalf : in Europe, 
EUROCONTROL's control centre at Maastricht provides air traffic control for the 
upper airspace of the Benelux countries and Northern Germany under specific 
agreements between the Agency and the States concerned. EUROCONTROL has also 
been given responsability for setting up and implementing a Central Flow Management 
Unit (CFMU) to provide ATFM over nearly all of Europe. 
The regulatory framework in which the operational function is provided nevertheless 
always remains a national prerogative, except when exist "ICAO Standards", which 
are binding international commitments, or "EUROCONTROL Standards" made 
mandatory by the Community (Directive EC/93/652 - see paragraph 8). 
As a consequence, each State is almost entirely free to decide the level of service to 
be provided and the means to be employed for this purpose, with the result that the 
technology used and the results achieved vary very widely from one country to 
another, making the overall system less efficient than it should be. 
4. To overcome this problem, if only in part, most countries in the world have felt it 
necessary to develop their international cooperation. They have done so on the basis 
of the principle of "full and exclusive sovereignty of each country over its own 
territory", as established in the Chicago convention of 1944 which laid the foundation 
of the global system of international air transport. 
In this context, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) was set up to 
define and adopt the common rules - the "ICAO standards" - needed to make the 
system interoperable so that any one aircraft could travel anywhere in the world. This 
2 OJ N. L 187, 23.1.1993. 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055.96/EN 
organisation, which has 184 member countries around the globe, is also responsible 
for ensuring that the services correspond as closely as possible to the needs of the 
users by adopting and amending from time to time Regional Air Navigation Plans, 
including the European Regional Air Navigation Plan. It may, consequently, give 
certain States responsibility for supplying such services to aircraft crossing 
international waters. It is nevertheless a relatively flexible framework, within which 
it is possible to notify differences from the common rules, while the undertakings 
given in the Regional Plans are not legally binding. 
Groups of States have also chosen to cooperate more closely at regional level and, in 
some cases, to consider actually integrating their national services. It was for this 
reason that EUROCONTROL3 was set up in 1960 by an international convention, to 
provide air traffic control for the entire upper airspace of its Member States. This, 
however, represented too great a transfer of sovereignty for some of the first of its 
member countries : even before the Convention entered into force, France and the 
United Kingdom reclaimed control of the whole of their own airspace, and Germany 
later largely followed suit. Consequently, EUROCONTROL was given essentially a 
coordinating role in planning and research, and its Convention was supplemented by 
a multilateral agreement under which it was given responsibility for collecting route 
charges. 
In parallel with these developments, and in view of the lessons learned from over-
ambitious attempts at integration, ICAO reinforced the existing mechanisms for 
cooperation at regional level by setting up the EANPG,4 which meets once or twice 
a year as necessary and works more or less continuously on updating and monitoring 
the European Regional Air Navigation Plan. 
At a more political level the European Civil Aviation Administrations have 
established, under the aegis of the Council of Europe, the European Civil Aviation 
Conference (ECAC)5 where they can discuss and co-ordinate their various policies. 
5. Up until now, despite the existence and continuing development of its competence in 
aviation, the Community has no formal status in any of these organisations. It is only 
involved as an observer, in certain aspects of their work. 
Today, EUROCONTROL has 20 Member States (the States of the European Union except Finland and Spain, plus Cyprus, 
Hungary, Malta, Norway, Slovenia, Switzerland and Turkey). The multilateral agreement on route charges covers these same 
countries plus Spain. 
European Air Navigation Planning Group. 
ECAC is now composed of 33 European States, including all EU Member States. 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055.96/EN 
III. AIRSPACE CONGESTION 
(a) The problem 
5.- Air traffic control was initially regarded primarily as a safety service, the constraints 
of which in terms of cost and delays - which were in fact relatively minor - had to 
be tolerated. It did not begin to be seen as a restrictive factor before the 1980s. Until 
then, airports has been regarded as the main bottleneck and it was thought that the 
development of air transport was therefore only limited by the number of runways 
which the environment would tolerate. 
In 1986 only 12% of intra-European flights were delayed by more than 15 minutes 
(for whatever reason: ATC, weather, airline, airport, etc.), but the figure rose to 20% 
in 1988 and 25% in 1989, chiefly because of infrastructure congestion. 
This appeared inacceptable, not only because of the direct overcost of delays to 
airlines evaluated at 2000 MECU6 annually, but also in view of the millions of hours 
wasted by the travelling public, as well as the deteriorating perception of air transport 
at a time when it faced increased competition from other transport modes. 
Remedial measures, and the concomitant investment programmes described hereunder, 
have considerably improved the situation in the early 90s: in 1993, the number of 
flights delayed by more than 15 minutes fell back to its 1986 level of 12% despite 
a 50% increase in traffic. 
Since mid-1994, however, according to the Association of European Airlines (AEA), 
delays have been increasing again and over 1995 the proportion of flights delayed by 
more than 15 minutes was 18.4%. 
Appendix 2 describes this trend and attempts to quantify its economic impact. 
(b) The initial response 
6.- These developments led to general frustration, and showed that inadequate capacity 
in air traffic control systems could also jeopardise the liberalisation process already 
under way and constitute a major obstacle to the free movement of persons, especially 
in inaccessible and island regions. Accordingly, most of those involved demanded 
radical action to deal with this problem, the resolution of which would bring positive 
social and economic benefits. 
Accordingly, towards the end of 1988 the Commission proposed a number of 
Community measures in this field7. 
7 Sources : IATA, late 1980s; INSTAR "Phase 0" report, 1995 
COM(88)577 final. These proposals are now being withdrawn by the Commission. 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055.96/EN 
The European Parliament also considered this issue and on 18 September 1992 
adopted a resolution on the saturation of airspace8 which advocated the establishment 
of a single air traffic management system based on the Community's institutional 
mechanisms. 
The Council did not adopt the Commission's proposals, however, and on 18 July 1989 
adopted a resolution on air traffic system capacity problems9 which saw multilateral 
cooperation within EC AC as the best way of resolving them; and called upon the 
Commission to help EUROCONTROL to accomplish its tasks in this connection, 
using Community legislative instruments as appropriate to ensure that decisions or 
resolutions adopted by the competent international bodies are actually implemented. 
7.- In parallel, the ATM community was itself taking stock of the situation and various 
strategies were devised to improve it: 
(a) In 1988 it was decided that ATFM activities should be centralised in order to 
make the most efficient use of the available ATC capacities with the aid of a full 
picture of supply and demand in Western Europe. EUROCONTROL was asked 
to establish a Central Flow Management Unit (CFMU), which has been set up 
gradually since 1992 and will be fully operational in the summer of 1996 when 
all the national air traffic flow management activities will have been transferred 
to it. 
(b) The EC AC en-route strategy was adopted in 1990. This resulted in the launching 
of the European Air Traffic Control Harmonisation and Integration Programme 
(EATCHIP) for which EUROCONTROL was given responsibility. 
The programme calls for the adoption of joint rules, procedures and specifications 
to ensure the interoperability and interaction of the various national systems. An 
EATCHIP Work Programme (EWP) has been established: in 1994 the annual 
expenditure under the EWP amounted to 68 million ECU, and this will have to 
rise even further between now and the end of the century. Its implementation will 
henceforth be a standing EUROCONTROL function. 
At the same time, individual countries have agreed to improve the capacity and 
performance of their national systems in order to meet, by 1995 and 1998, jointly 
defined operational objectives to ensure the overall consistency of investment and 
avoid the emergence of weak links. The details of the various national 
programmes make up the Convergence and Implementation Programme (CIP). 
The ECAC countries have invested an estimated ECU 1 200 million per annum 
on average since 1992 in the modernisation of their national systems, and it is 
considered that a similar outlay will be needed over the next three years in order 
to implement the CIP. 
OJNoC284, 2.11.1992. 
OJNoC 189, 26.7.1989. 
Version of 5.3.% - 055.96/EN 
EUROCONTROL and its member countries have also agreed to undertake a 
major effort on research and development to define the concepts and develop the 
tools required to meet foreseeable long-term needs. The aim is to bring about a 
uniform European Air Traffic Management System (EATMS). 
(c) Finally, in 1992 a strategy was established to improve the interface between 
airports and air traffic services (APATSI). Responsibility for monitoring this 
programme is shared between EUROCONTROL and the ECAC Secretariat, while 
the individual countries are responsible for implementing it. Within this 
framework, procedures have been developed for improving runway capacity and 
a new body, the Central Office for Delay Analysis (CODA), is being set up for 
collecting and analysing data on delays so as to determine their causes and take 
appropriate steps to reduce them. 
This pragmatic approach is supported by all concerned, particularly the airline 
associations actively involved in EUROCONTROL's standardisation work. 
For its part the Commission, as requested by the Council, has lent its support to the 
implementation of the ECAC strategies through various forms of financial assistance; 
and the adoption of a Directive making the "EUROCONTROL standards" mandatory 
within the Community10 (see also paragraphs 28 and 29). 
(c) The present state of play 
9.- As already seen, there are now signs that the rate of delays is beginning to worsen 
again seriously after the significant improvements in recent years. The figures for 
1995 are amongst the worst ever recorded. On average, some 18.4% of flights were 
delayed by more than 15 minutes over the year; in September, the figure was back to 
the 1989 level of 25% (compared to 17.5% in September 1994); and, in December, 
severe weather contributed to a figure as high as 27.1% (compared to 15.2% in 
December 1994). 
Although the cost of ATC delays to airlines had steadied at around ECU 2 000 million 
annually despite the increase in traffic, this level remains extremely heavy as it 
accounts for some 5.5% of the total cost of intra-European air services.11 The initial 
conclusions of the study by ECAC, with the support of the Commission, on 
organisational arrangements (INSTAR) showed that there is still considerable room 
for improvement in the quality of the service provided. Taken together, a reduction 
in delays and an improvement in the network of air routes could result in an annual 
saving to airspace users of some ECU 2 000 million; 
10.- Moreover, the costs of providing ATC en-route services increased from 1986 to 1993 
by 60% in real terms (120% at current value) - that is, faster than traffic has grown 
10 OJ No L 187, 23.1.1993, Directive 93/65 
Sources: IATA and AEA, late 1980s; INSTAR "Phase 0" report, 1995 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055.96/EN 
and accounted for 5.6% of the cost of intra-European air services, compared with 
3.8% in 1986. The figure may even be as high as 20% in the case of regional 
services.12 The INSTAR study also concluded that steps could be taken to curb 
further rises in the cost of this service, thus saving a further ECU 600 million per 
year in charges to airspace users. That is roughly one quarter of the total amount paid 
today. 
11.- At their informal meeting in Palma on 15 July 1995, the Community Transport 
Ministers recognised the need for further progress in this field to achieve the 
objectives of economic efficiency, social cohesion and sustainable mobility, as laid 
down in the Treaty. They also expressed the wish that this White Paper, then being 
drafted, would put forward proposals to that effect. 
This view is broadly shared by the European Parliament, as can be seen from its 
various resolutions on the subject, particularly those adopted on 27 September 1994 
on air traffic control in Europe13 and on 14 February 1995 on the way-forward for 
civil aviation in Europe.14 The Parliament considers, moreover, that the Community 
should be more involved in the process. It has therefore called for the "harmonisation 
and integration of the different national ATC systems, under the aegis of the EU, and 
the establishment of the basic framework for a single unified ATC system covering 
the entire Community airspace and controlled by a single Community Civil Aviation 
Authority", and has requested the Commission "to draw up, as soon as possible, a 
complete and detailed timetable to achieve this", reminding the Commission "of its 
powers in the event of non-compliance by a Member State with the obligations that 
are incumbent on it under the Treaty on European Union. " 
This is the view generally taken, too, by a number of airline associations and other 
airspace users, who have called for a full exercise of Community competence in this 
sphere. 
The "Committee of Wise Men", set up by the Commission in 1992 to work out an 
overall European air transport policy, also echoed this view. 
12.- As the technical and operational value of the ECAC strategies described here above, 
is recognised by all parties involved, it is clear that the lack of further progress and 
even the current deterioration is largely attributable to an increasing inability of the 
present organisational arrangements to cope with the growing demands required of 
them. The Commission has decided, therefore, to review what needs to be done in 
Europe to build an efficient Air Traffic Management system so as to identify the 
organisational shortcomings which slow down, hamper or block further developments. 
The results are set out in the Annex to this paper, and are summarised in the 
See Appendix 2. 
OJ No C 305, 31.10.1994. 
OJ NoC 56, 6.3.1995. 
Version of 5 3.96 - 055.96/EN 
following chapter. On this basis the Commission has developed its views on the 
appropriate organisational changes required; and how the Community could best play 
its role in achieving these objectives while respecting the principle of subsidiarity or 
proportionality and taking account of the experience and expertise of the international 
organisations already involved. 
III. THE SHORTCOMINGS 
A fragmented picture 
(Sections 3.2, 3.4.2, 3.5, 3.7, 4.1, 5.1 and 5.5 of the Annex) 
13.- Establishing a unified European air traffic management system with the capacity to 
satisfy the foreseeable needs in acceptable economic conditions would be a complex 
undertaking requiring the development of new concepts and technologies and heavy 
investment in equipment and human resources. But first of all, there is a need for a 
full understanding of all the aspects if the right decisions are to be taken and 
implemented in good time. 
At the moment, the only means of obtaining this comprehensive picture is by getting 
information from various bodies working in parallel - which only adds to the confusion 
in an already highly complex field, and wastes resources and effort. Apart from the 
Community's own activities, which are described in paragraphs 28 and 29, these 
bodies are: 
- EUROCONTROL and the ICAO European Regional Office for air traffic flow 
management; 
the EATCHIP Project Board, for en-route strategy, the definition of common 
objectives, procedures and specifications and monitoring their implementation; 
the APATSI Project Board, for the airport/air traffic services interface; 
the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA)15, for performance levels and specifications 
for on-board equipment; 
NATO's Committee for European Airspace Coordination (CEAC), for the 
co-ordination of military and civil requirements; 
The Joint Aviation Authorities are an informal grouping of national aviation administrations, which deals with the saety of 
aircraft and their operators. 
Version of5.3.96 -055.96/EN 10 
the ICAO's European Air Navigation Planning Group (EANPG), for general 
planning and liaison with neighbouring countries and regions. 
The adverse effects of this fragmentation become particularly apparent when it comes 
to standardisation or research and technological development, where different bodies 
are responsible for different parts of what should be considered as a single, 
comprehensive system. Management of airspace, air traffic flow planning or the 
management of crises also suffer from the lack of a global approach. 
Although ECAC could possibly be given responsibility for overall coordination, its 
present Secretariat lacks the resources to perform this role; and in any case it is by no 
means certain that this body has either the political dimension or the legitimacy to 
enable it to do so properly. 
There is a need to establish a single body capable of bringing together all the elements 
necessary to develop a comprehensive European ATM policy. 
Lack of decision-making mechanisms 
(Sections 1.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4.1 and 3.4.3 of the Annex) 
14.- Any comprehensive approach to ATM must also be accompanied by appropriate 
mechanisms for efficient decision-making. Today, however, the various bodies operate 
mainly on the basis of consensus, as far as the regulatory aspects of ATM are 
concerned. This slows down the implementation of the ECAC strategies since, now 
that nearly all the easiest points have been settled, the process is starting to stumble 
over trickier issues. This is the case with, for example, the use of airborne collision 
avoidance systems, the drafting of common procedures and specifications, the use of 
VHF frequencies and the reduction of vertical separation, on all of which decisions 
appear to be hard to reach through the EATCHIP processes. By contrast it seems 
probable that decisions could have been reached on all these points if rule-making had 
been based on majority voting. 
But above all, the present state of affairs cannot go on as it is because it does not 
recognise the fact that airspace must be regarded as a common resource which has to 
be managed in the best interests of all users. The need to take national defence 
requirements into consideration is sometimes used as a justification for such an 
approach, but these concerns could easily be met by instituting proper safeguards. 
There is a need to introduce effective decision-making processes based on majority 
voting instead of unanimity, together with appropriate safeguard mechanisms to deal 
with exceptional cases where national security could be threatened. 
Version of 5 3.96 - 055.96/EN 1 1 
Lack of decision-making aids 
(Sections 3.1, 3.6.1, 4.2, 4.3, 5.1 and 5.2 of the Annex) 
15.- A major weakness in the present arrangements is the lack of management information 
to assist the decision-making process. This is already widely recognised, and several 
of the programmes in EATCHIP and APATSI are intended to address the causes. 
The first cause is the lack of suitable indicators to access the quality and quantity of 
the service provided or to be supplied. This hampers traffic flow management and 
planning; and hinders any detailed cost-benefit analysis of major investment or of 
options under consideration for boosting the capacity of the system, such as Reduced, 
Vertical Separation, Area Navigation, etc. 
The second lies in individual countries' reluctance to reveal details of costs, 
investment, manpower, etc. This lack of transparency makes it difficult"to check that 
the common objectives are attained, to conduct cost-benefit analyses on the 
appropriate scale or simply to make comparisons to evaluate the performance and 
efficiency of all involved. 
The third stems from the inadequacy of the human and technical resources available 
to carry out the analyses required to support the decision-making process. This can 
be explained by the fact that, until comparatively recently, air traffic control services 
were invariably provided by national authorities as a monopoly public service in which 
users had little say. That, however, is certainly no longer acceptable today, not least 
for the users, and every decision must be fully justified on the basis of technical, 
economic and social criteria in order to make sure that they will give the expected 
results in terms of safety and capacity; ensure the competitiveness of the European 
economies; and be acceptable to the human environment. 
There is a need for a stronger support for decision-takers, which would be able to 
provide them with appropriate information and well-prepared proposals. 
Inefficient use of available resources 
(Sections 3.2, 3.5, 3.7 and 4.2.2 of the Annex) 
16.- The poor use of available resources reflects the approach of ATC authorities which 
seek, first of all, to solve their particular problems on their own. This can be seen 
at three levels. 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055.96/EN ] 2 
The most obvious, of course, is the proliferation of types of particular equipment, 
both civil and military, where a joint approach would have allowed more rational 
siting and operation. This holds true especially for communication, navigation and 
surveillance systems, but applies also to control centres themselves and ATM 
subsystems. One good example of what closer cooperation can achieve is the Initial 
Flightplan Processing System (IFPS), set up to assist the establishment of the Central 
Flow Management Unit (CFMU). 
The second level is in the approach taken in making technological choices. In 
particular, the ATM sector appears to be denying itself access to techniques -
particularly in the case of telecommunications and data transmission applications -
which have already proved their worth in other fields. This seems to be due to a lack 
of systematic evaluation of and experimentation with new technologies which could 
be used for air traffic management. 
The third can be seen in the procedures for drafting specifications and common 
standards. Today the ATM community acts as legislator, standards-setter, customer 
and engineer. This complicates and slows down the standardisation process and 
distances it from what is happening in industry. Instead, the industry could play its 
role in this sector as it does in others. Enlisting the help of standardisation bodies 
would be a better means of sharing the work to be done and, therefore, enabling the 
legislative bodies to concentrate more on the matters for which they are specially 
responsible. Establishment of a certification and labelling mechanism would also ease 
the task of the industry and customers and improve the functioning of the internal 
market. 
There is a need for a central authority to decide on common options, allocate tasks 
and rationalise investments. 
Lack of means of following up decisions 
(Sections 3.2, 3.5, 3.7 and 4.3 of the Annex) 
17.- The need for effective decision-making mechamsms has already been discussed, but 
experience shows that, if a decision is to be properly applied in practice, monitoring 
is needed to ensure that it is correctly understood by all concerned; that all the means 
needed to carry it out are available; and that any failure to comply properly is 
detected and corrective action taken in good time. 
Paragraph 15 described the shortcomings in the area of decision-making aids. The 
same shortcomings - absence of adequate performance indicators, lack of 
transparency and insufficient resources - are also hampering the establishment of an 
objective, independent evaluation mechanism. 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055.96/EN 1 3 
In any event, the institutional arrangements linking the parties concerned allow no 
effective corrective measures other than the obligation to comply with the 
"EUROCONTROL standards" made mandatory in the Community through the 
mechanism established by Directive 93/65. 
So long as regulatory decisions can be taken only by consensus, and therefore only 
cover action which would have been undertaken spontaneously in any case, this is 
possibly not too critical. The situation would be very different, however, were 
decisions to be taken by majority vote. 
This shortcoming is especially apparent when it comes to monitoring the 
implementation of the Convergence and Implementation Programme (CIP), where 
it is particularly difficult to know whether individual countries are in fact achieving 
in good time the joint objectives. 
Similar suspicions persist with regard to application of the common procedures and 
specifications, particularly for non-Community countries where no measures seem 
to have been taken to implement the EUROCONTROL standards. 
There is a need for a central authority able to ensure that decisions are applied 
effectively and uniformly, and to take any necessary remedial steps if they are not. 
Lack of tools for implementation and support 
(Sections 3.5 and 3.7 of the Annex) 
18.- Not all decisions can be absolutely mandatory, particularly when implementing them 
depends on such imponderables as the availability of capital or the technical 
feasibility of certain projects. This is particularly true of investment, and research 
and technological development. It is then necessary for the decision-makers 
themselves to have sufficient resources to ensure that the policies they decide are 
carried through. 
Apart from some Community funds, however, there are no other collective financial 
resources available to the ATM community which can help certain members to attain 
the objectives of the CIP, although such resources are essential. 
Further, the resources available both to EUROCONTROL and individual countries 
are far from adequate to meet the research and development requirements essential 
for working up the ideas and techniques needed to satisfy the demand foreseeable in 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055.96/EN 1 4 
the medium to long term. Moreover, since these resources come from en-route 
charges, users are reluctant to see that money allocated to long-term research and 
technological development activities which, they consider, should come under 
industrial rather than transport policy. 
There is a need for a central authority, with the ability to dispose of appropriate 
financial resources to support the implementation of agreed ATM policies. 
Inadequate cost control 
(Sections 4.2, 4.2.1, 4.2.3 and 4.4 of the Annex) 
19.- Air traffic control is, first and foremost, a safety function provided mainly by public 
administrations or authorities as a public service. Because, up to now, it has 
generally not been treated as a commercial service, cost control has not been one of 
the foremost concerns. This tendency has been aggravated partly by the institutional 
framework within which the providers of the service operated; and partly by the 
methods used for recovering costs. 
On the first of these points, the fact that the services are provided by the public 
sector imposes administrative constraints which mean they cannot take advantage of 
all the opportunities available to private sector business managers to motivate their 
staff and fund their operations at the lowest possible cost. Although changes in 
various countries are helping to reduce this handicap, there is a need to establish a 
broad economic environment more condusive to managerial efficiency.There are 
various possible ways of achieving this, which need to be explored further. 
As for the second point, the knowledge that all one's expenditure will always be 
recovered through user charges to customers, irrespective of their number, together 
with a non-profit-making ethos, means that suppliers of ATM services lack a proper 
motivation to pursue cost-effectiveness. 
There is a need to encourage the development of an appropriate organisational 
environment which would encourage the managerial responsibility of ATM providers 
and stimulate their cost-consciousness. 
Version of 5 3 96 055 %/KN 1 5 
IV. DEFINING A SOLUTION 
20.- There can be no question that solving the shortcomings identified in the preceding 
paragraphs will require a major restructuring of the organisational arrangements 
applicable to Air Traffic Management in Europe today. This would, in fact, mean 
setting up a single ATM system, since it appears clearly from the previous chapter 
that what is required above all is a central authority with a specific mandate, 
provided with the appropriate means to fulfill its tasks. 
(a) The need to separate regulatory and operational functions 
21.- As described earlier ATM comprises two main functions which require two very 
different skills - one based on legal and administrative competence, and the other on 
extensive technical knowledge and management proficiency. 
These functions are so different that it is questionable whether, any single 
organisation could perform them both equally well : such an organisation would 
naturally be reluctant to admit its own shortcomings and indeed might be tempted 
to use its regulatory powers to ward off the emergence of any alternative, competing 
approaches to air traffic management. Separation of the two functions would also 
encourage greater efficiency in the exercise of, and greater transparency in the 
allocation of responsibilities to each function. 
Although the current shortcomings affect all aspects of ATM policy-making and 
service-provision, it seems apparent that most spring from weaknesses in the area 
of policy-making at the most strategic level, which then feed through to affect 
service provision as such. 
There is a strong case, therefore, for concentrating efforts on improving the present 
procedures for strategic policy-making by creating a single regulatory authority, 
while leaving existing mechanisms for service provision very largely unchanged.This 
would take greater account of both the reality of the present situation and the 
principle of subsidiarity and proportionality as laid down in the Treaty, according 
to which collective action should be limited to those fields in which it is more 
effective than individual action, and should be in proportion to the objective to be 
achieved. 
In any organisational reform in the field of ATM the two principle functions -
"regulatory" and "operational" - should be dissociated as far as practicable, although 
there is a need for an in-depth analysis of how this could best be achieved. 
(b) The operational function 
22.- As far as the operational function is concerned - which can itself be subdivided into 
. a number of sub-functions (the supply of communications, navigation, surveillance, 
ATC, air traffic flow management and other air navigation services) - it has been 
Version of 5.3.96 • 055.96/EN 16 
argued that setting up a single operator is the most radical way to create the single 
system Europe needs. According to its proponents such an approach would not only 
ease the provision of consistent ATC services throughout Europe regardless of 
national borders, but also allow for economies of scale by rationalising the 
investment required to provide these services. On the other hand setting up such a 
monopoly at Community or ECAC level seems hardly realistic given the practical 
reality of air traffic management in Europe today. Not only does it raise issues of 
national security and control but it is also doubtful whether it would actually cure 
some of the system's present weaknesses, particularly as regards cost-cutting. In 
addition it would inevitably hamper the development of competitive alternatives (see 
section 4.2.3 in the Annex). Accordingly, it might be better to leave individual 
countries to provide - as cost-effectively as possible, through public or private 
operators in accordance with their own practices - the services prescribed by the 
regulatory function. 
At the same time, though, it is necessary to encourage the development of a more 
stimulating environment by setting pricing policy on a more commercial footing than 
it is at present (see section 4.4. of the annex), so as to encourage greater cost-
consciousness. 
It would also be up to the operators to choose ways of cooperating or competing 
with their opposite numbers in Europe according to their own strategy and interests. 
Some countries may choose to provide ATC services on a joint basis, as happens 
now with the Maastricht Centre operated by EUROCONTROL providing ATC 
services for Northern Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. A 
similar joint control centre is planned for several countries in central Europe. The 
regulatory authority should be able to provide support, on the lines described to in 
paragraph 18, to encourage such joint initiatives aimed at improving economic 
efficiency. 
If individual countries opt for "monopolistic" solutions - as seems inevitable at this 
point, as far as most of the sub-functions are concerned - it should be their 
responsibility to set up the economic control mechanisms necessary to protect users. 
It could also be for the regulatory authority to define and set common economic 
targets so as to ensure a consistent level of performance throughout Europe. 
As far as Member States of the Community are concerned, they will of course need 
to respect the requirements of the air transport policy and the provisions of the 
Treaty. 
23.- There is, however, one sub-function which might justifiably be centralised in any 
case: traffic flow management. This has already been widely recognised, and indeed 
a centralised system is currently being set up under the aegis of EUROCONTROL. 
Version of 5.3.% - 055.96/EN 17 
In its Communication on congestion and crisis16, however, the Commission 
expressed its dissatisfaction with the arrangement under which the CFMU is 
operating. In addition to its executive role, the CFMU should be given, within a 
future centralised authority, the powers which would make its decisions compulsory 
both for users and service providers, as far as flow planning, ATC slot allocation 
and targets for ATC capacity are concerned (see section 5 of the Annex). 
Moreover, in a context of increased competition between providers of services, 
particularly in view of changes in the policy of calculating and redistributing route 
charges, decisions taken by the CFMU leading to a redistribution of traffic might 
have an important effect on the revenue and profitability of ATC bodies. It is 
therefore important that the CFMU's role should be more clearly spelt out and its 
relationships with its "customers" set on a contractual footing, so as to avoid 
continual disputes in the future. 
This same structure should also take on a greater responsibility for the operational 
management of the "flexible use of airspace" concept at European level, since the 
techniques required for coordinating civil and military traffic are very similar to 
those used for managing and planning air traffic flows. Ideally its competence should 
even be expanded to include the management of the whole European airspace for all 
users, civil and military, with the same delegated authority, as suggested earlier. 
(c). The regulatory function 
24.- While arrangements for the provision of ATM services could remain the 
responsibility of individual countries, quite different arrangements must be 
considered for the "regulatory function". This function - which itself may be 
subdivided into sub-functions (safety, economic performance, investment, human 
resources, access to airspace, Research and Development, etc) - ought to be 
organised in such a way that it can draw up a single, unified regulatory framework, 
compatible with international standards and practices. That framework should 
cover: 
the level of safety to be met and ways of monitoring its achievement. This 
includes the definition of operational requirements and certification procedures 
applicable to ATM equipment and services; 
quantitative and qualitative objectives for the service to be provided, and 
timetables for meeting those objectives. This implies in particular the setting of 
quantified targets for the traffic to be handled, acceptable delays, the capacity 
to be provided and, possibly, the level of fees to be charged; it ought to include 
16 COM(95) 318 final, 5.7.1995 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055.96/EN 1 O 
also some kind of performance audit or management control to support the 
achievement of these targets. 
joint procedures and specifications to ensure interoperability and interconnection 
between the various components of the system, as well as methods for checking 
that these procedures and specifications are complied with; 
the collective management of certain scarce resources. This applies in particular 
to the use of available ATC capacity at peak periods or in times of crises, as 
well as to the allocation of airspace to its various users, civil and military; 
the preparation and implementation of a joint investment policy under which the 
cost/benefit analyses necessary for making rational choices would be carried out 
in common and using, as far as possible, an "equipment fund" to help weaker 
partners or to increase capacity in the most critical areas; such a policy should 
take into account the potential of private financing and public-private 
partnerships to be set up by the local operators; 
a human resources management policy which would help to develop a uniform 
level of services provision throughout Europe, and to facilitate the free 
movement of air traffic control staff; and 
a better co-operation in the field of Research and Technological Development, 
to ensure that new concepts come forward, are selected and are applied in a 
timely manner, while recognising that final decisions for RTD activities remain 
with the competent authorities. 
To achieve this it is clear that the best way is to have a central regulatory authority 
able to build the comprehensive picture required and enjoying the power and 
resources advocated in paragraphs 13 to 18.17 
V. OPTIONS FOR THE SINGLE ATM SYSTEM 
Option 1 : a "European monolithic structure" 
25.- As already mentioned, in paragraph 22, it has often been suggested that establishing 
a more efficient organisational framework requires very centralised solutions, similar 
17 The Commission is conscious that the delicate question of maintaining the appropriate balance between safety and efficiency, 
could justify that operational requirements and safety aspects sould be regulated by a separate body, which, in view of the 
increasing integration of ground and on-board equipment into a global ATM system, should also be responsible for the 
safety of aviation as a whole. This will be considered in the work being done separately on the possible setting up a 
"European Aviation Safety Aurhority". 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055.96/EN 19 
to the role originally envisioned for EUROCONTROL, which would bring both the 
policy-making and service-provision functions under one umbrella across all Europe. 
Although, by definition, such solutions would not meet the criterion that the 
regulatory and service-provision functions should be separated, they are considered 
as an option because they have been the subject of considerable discussion. 
Establishing such a "monolithic structure" would involve transferring all the 
necessary powers and resources to a single entity, set up by a special Treaty with 
a mandate to manage, as efficiently as possible, the airspace for which it was 
responsible; and to provide, within that airspace, air navigation services as a 
universal public service. The procedures for this would be set down in broad outline 
in its constitution and spelt out in detail by a management body representing the 
various interests involved. 
The proponents of a "monolithic structure" argue that a highly centralised 
organisation of this sort would bring considerable advantages in terms of 
accelerating the standardisation of ATS provision across Europe by giving 
responsibility both for service provision and future policy-making to a single entity, 
as in the USA. An organisation of this nature would, it is argued, be able to be far 
more authoritative and decisive than the present situation allows. 
However, while a "monolithic structure" might be practicable in a single country 
already equipped with central decision-making and monitoring structures, it seems 
even less realistic than creating a single operator (see paragraph 22) insofar as it 
could exacerbate the difficulties raised. And indeed, some countries which already 
have such centralised structures are now beginning to question the merits of a 
monolithic approach and are considering a clearer distinction of the respective roles 
and responsibilities, as suggested earlier in this paper. 
Option 2: "a solution limited to the Community" 
26.- Using the powers and resources conferred on it by the Treaty, the Community might 
be able to provide answers to a number of the shortcomings identified, and provide 
for its Member States the single regulatory framework referred to above. This would 
be consistent with the objective of the Treaty to favour Community solutions when 
collective action would be - as in this case - more efficient than action by individual 
countries. 
This would also be a logical consequence of the existence of Community competence 
in air traffic management. 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055 96/EN 20 
Improvement of the European ATM system is essential for the completion of the 
single market in air transport and thus for achieving those objectives of the Treaty, 
particularly with regard to economic and social cohesion and the free movement of 
people. Community action in this area therefore forms an integral part of the 
common air transport policy and the Community should act to fulfil its legal and 
political obligations. 
Moreover, paragraph 1 of Article 75 of the Treaty says that "the Council...will 
establish... measures to improve transport safety...". Since the purpose of air traffic 
management is, above all, to ensure the safety of air transport, and the purpose of 
action is to further improve this safety at a time when air traffic is growing 
steadily, there can be no doubt as to the Community's competence in this field. 
27.- The Community has a number of legal powers through which it could take action 
here - Article 84(2) for matters directly linked to the furtherance of the common 
transport policy; Article 100A for harmonisation measures; Article 129 c for the 
interoperability and interconnection of national air traffic control systems; and 
Article 130H for research co-ordination. 
Using these, the Community might be able to produce the comprehensive picture 
needed to solve the problems, and develop a single airspace managed as a joint 
resource regardless of national boundaries, by establishing a body with appropriate 
responsibilities. Ideally this would involve treating military and civil use of this 
communal airspace together ; and if Member States were concerned that this could 
affect their national security interests, appropriate solutions and safeguards could be 
found and applied, if there were sufficient political will to do so. 
As for the actual provision of air navigation services in such a scenario, this would 
remain the responsibility of the Member States, but these services would have to 
comply with specifications drawn up by the Community in accordance with ICAO 
standards. 
28.- The Community could use its organisational procedures - which have already proved 
useful in several other fields - in the field of ATM, to develop the necessary 
regulatory framework and to ensure that it is properly implemented. It has already 
done so with the adoption of Directive 93/65 on the mandatory technical 
specifications for the procurement of ATM equipment and systems; and it could do 
the same in many other aspects - some of which are already being pursued by 
EUROCONTROL and ICAO - so long as the provisions adopted are compatible 
with the standards and practices already agreed in these competent bodies. These 
include matters on which the Commission may decide to bring forward proposals 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055.96/EN 21 
in any case: the use of airborne collision avoidance systems; the adoption of 
common procedures; the use of VHF frequencies; the reduction of vertical 
separation; the setting of joint objectives on the capacity and quality of service to 
be provided, both in normal circumstances and in times of crisis; and the 
establishment of priority rules for making better use of the available capacity, as has 
already been done in relation to airport slots. 
The Community can also initiate the development of industrial standards. This 
ability could be used to alleviate the regulatory workload, allowing a better use of 
the industry's expertise and a better functioning of the internal market. Indeed 
Directive 83/189/EEC18 established information procedures in the field of technical 
regulations and standards, whereby the Commission can give a standardisation 
mandate to specialist bodies to undertake the development of technical standards 
themselves; and can contribute financially to this work. This would require, 
however, the establishment of a body to evaluate and select the areas to be covered, 
bridging the gap between research and development and the implemention of new 
technologies once they are fully established (see section 3.2 of the Annex). 
29.- The Community can use the instruments available to it for support and 
implementation. It has already done so in the area of ATM wherever possible. 
Under Article 129 relating to trans-European networks, the Community is able not 
only to adopt appropriate measures for ensuring the interoperability and 
interconnection of the national systems but also to provide significant financial 
support for implementing the ATM improvement strategies. To pave the way for 
this, the Commission has included ATM in its proposal for a Decision on guidelines 
for the development of the Trans-European Transport Network and, with the 
cooperation of experts, is drawing up a programme of projects to receive support 
for action in this area (see Appendix 3). In December 1994, at their meeting in 
Essen, the Heads of State and Government underlined the importance of the ATM 
sector. 
Further, the availability of funds for cooperation with the Community's European 
neighbours, PHARE19 and TAOS20, make it possible to extend the Community's 
support to the whole of the area ideally to be covered by the ATM improvement 
strategies. 
18 
19 
20 OJNoL109/8, 26.4.1983 
PHARE = Poland, Hungary Aid for the Restructuring for Technical Assistance to the Economy. 
TAGS = Technical Assisance to the Commonwealth of Indépendant States 
Version of 5.3.96 • 055.96/EN 22 
To be truly effective, however, these instruments should be used in a context of 
stronger cooperation, enabling comprehensive assessments to be made of the 
investment required; the funding capabilities of individual countries; and the 
progress made towards achieving joint objectives. 
Article 130H, and subsequent articles, enable cooperation to take place between the 
Community, Member States and international organisations to assemble and 
implement a consistent research and development programme so that the best use 
is made of available resources in air traffic management. Indeed, the Commission 
has taken the initiative of coordinating, in close collaboration with its partners, the 
various ATM studies already included in the fourth Framework Programme through 
ECARDA21. It is essential to develop this, both to ensure that work is followed up 
and disseminated, and to build on this cooperation for still more ambitious 
programmes in future (see section 3.7 of the Annex; and Appendix 4). 
In response to the need for greater coordination of RTD activities and policies, the 
Commission has also decided to set up Task Forces for specific subjects. The Task 
Forces should also provide support in transforming European scientific 
breakthroughs and technological achievements into industrial and commercial 
successes. The activities of two of the Task Forces, the Task Force on "New 
Generation Aircraft" and the Task Force on "Transport Intermodality", are relevant 
to ATM and support the objectives of this White Paper. 
30. However, Community involvement in the field of ATM has certain limits, in 
particular because the preparation and monitoring of action in such a specialised 
field require particular expertise which, effectively, at present, is only available to 
national organisations and EUROCONTROL. Therefore, the Community would 
have to set up a new executive body to prepare the decisions to be taken and to 
follow up subsequent developments. 
Such an operation, however, would not be easy to justify given the fact that other 
organisations are already working in the ATM field, and that the tasks of the new 
body would, to a large extent, coincide with those which are currently the 
responsibility of EUROCONTROL. 
A solution could be to transform the EUROCONTROL Agency into a Community 
agency, but this could imply dismantling the organisation as such in order to keep 
only its means and resources for regulatory tasks. 
Moreover, although such a Community approach would make it possible to deal 
with some of the problems facing the 15 Member States, it would not give the 
complete European dimension to the action required. The efficiency of Community 
air 
21 ECARDA = European Coherent Approach for RTD in ATM 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055.96/EN 23 
transport depends also on the quality of ATC services in non-Member States, 
because they have to be overflown, or because their airspace could be needed to 
absorb some traffic at peak times. 
The Community could, certainly, use its powers under the Treaty to conclude 
agreements with its neighbours, but it is not at all clear if they would want this 
because such agreements could not necessarily guarantee them the participative role 
to which they have become accustomed in the organisations currently active in 
ATM. 
Option 3: a broader European solution 
31.- Considering the limitations of the previous option it seems preferable to look for a 
wider European framework than just the geographical area covered by the Member 
States of the Community. Working on the basis of such a broader coverage would 
be a far better way of improving the efficiency of European ATM - provided 
always that this approach does not have the effect of weakening the structures and 
mechanisms needed to achieve that objective. This would also provide for more 
flexibility, increasing the scope for subregional groupings to further integrate their 
airspace should they choose to do so. 
Another major advantage of building the single ATM system on a wider multilateral 
organisation is that national governments might well find it easier to allow such an 
organisation to play a role in the military use of airspace22, provided appropriate 
safeguards were foreseen and allow the States to retain in these cases the control of 
this use. 
Given the existence of EUROCONTROL, it is obviously more sensible if that 
organisation were to take on part of the necessary regulatory role in Europe, 
becoming primarily responsible for airspace management and technical 
specifications. 
This option would certainly require "reinventing" EUROCONTROL so as to give 
it greater political legitimacy, and invest it with powers as well as the necessary 
decision-taking, monitoring and support mechanisms to enable it to carry out its 
tasks properly. To do so calls for a careful examination23 of a range of organisation 
models, covering the sub-functions listed in paragraph 24 to different degrees, and 
envisaging a range of possible decision-taking processes and control system. This 
exercise should identify new structures capable of meeting fully the requirements 
described earlier in this 
22 
23 Bearing in mind that there is no Community competence in this field. 
Such an exercise is being carried out by the INSTAR Study, in close co-operation with the Commission 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055.96/EN 24 
paper; and of carrying out themselves, or supervising effectively the undertaking by 
others, all the various tasks discussed in the Annex. The EUROCONTROL 
Convention would then need to be revised accordingly to accomodate the model 
selected.24 
32. The Community will itself have to take a position on the structure it prefers, so that 
it can present its own proposals in due course. 
Obviously, it is the view of the Commission, that any solution will have to conform 
to the principal conclusions of this White Paper. In particular, there has to be a 
clear separation between the exercise of the regulatory and the operational functions, 
except for the operational aspects of Air Traffic Flow Management - and, if 
possible, of Air Space Management - which need to be performed centrally and 
should be regarded as part of the regulatory role of allocating available resources 
between their various users on a compulsory basis. 
Although other operational tasks should remain decentralised at national level, this 
does not preclude joint ventures to perform them, where this is practicable and 
compatible with competition rules. 
A central authority must be established to cover all the tasks except for the first one 
described in paragraph 24. This "new EUROCONTROL" should be given the 
powers and resources necessary to overcome the shortcomings described in 
paragraphs 13 to 18. 
33. Moreover, since the Community already has competence in many of the fields for 
which the "new EUROCONTROL" would be responsible - see paragraphs 26 to 
29 - and because the further development of Community competence would facilitate 
building a single ATM system, the Commission considers it essential that the 
Community becomes a full member of this organisation. This will allow the 
Community to exercise its competence and ensure that decisions were compatible 
with the policies of the Treaty and were taken in a more transparent and democratic 
way. The Community should, therefore, speak on all matters which fall within its 
sphere of competence, with sufficient voting weight to oppose any decision that 
would be contrary to its own interests. To do so, the positions taken by the 
Community will have been worked out beforehand in accordance with Community 
procedures so that all institutions can play their proper roles, and that the 
commitments regarding the consultation of interested parties, in particular the social 
partners, are met appropriately. Similarly, the positions of the Member States in 
matters where they are competent should be co-ordinated according to procedures 
24 EUROCONTROL itself is considering a draft new convention which would strenghten its organisational arrangements. In 
December 1995, however, the EUROCONTROL Standing Commission decided to postpone further consideration of this until 
this White Paper had been issued and debated. 
Version of 5 3.96 - 055.96/EN 25 
which ensure close co-operation and the unity of the Community position in 
international fora. Finally, the Community would use the enforcement and incentive 
tools available to it in order to ensure that decisions are followed up and 
implemented in the territories of its Member States. 
On this basis, and in the light of the work being done on the institutional 
arrangements, the Commission will develop a recommendation for negotiating 
directives in order to allow the Community to become a party to 
EUROCONTROL : obviously, this implies that the conditions described in 
paragraphs 31 to 33 are fully met. 
VI. CONCLUSIONS 
34.- Despite the notable achievements of the aeronautical community, and the quality of 
the strategies and programmes put forward, the present situation still does not 
guarantee that the Community will have the air traffic management, system that 
would both meet the needs of users and satisfy its own policy objectives. 
The Commission considers that, to attain those objectives, it is necessary to set up 
a system of air traffic management separating the regulatory from the operational 
functions and established at the widest possible European level, which is able to cut 
across national boundaries. Such a system must be based on the centralised exercise 
of regulatory functions together with certain operational tasks in the fields of Air 
Traffic Flow Management and Air Space Management, with the undertaking of 
other operational tasks remaining the responsibility of individual countries. 
With the aim of making a positive contribution to the debate, and without prejudice 
to the exercise and development of Community competence required in this area, 
the Commission considers the third option developed in this White Paper as a 
pragmatic one, aimed at "re-inventing" EUROCONTROL which implies that the 
organisation must have the powers and mechanisms for decision-taking and 
monitoring needed to carry out its role with proper authority. The Community 
must become a member of the new EUROCONTROL with the weight it deserves 
and on terms which enable it to exercise its competence and allow its Institutions to 
perform the roles allocated to them by the Treaty. Accordingly, the Commission 
will make recommendations, in order to allow the Community to become a party to 
EUROCONTROL and ensure that the conditions for this option are fully met. 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055.96/EN 26 
ANNEX 
BUILDING A UNIFIED AIR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 
Working towards unified Air Traffic Management System is a complex operation calling 
for continuous development simultaneously in several very different fields in order to 
achieve and maintain the following essential goals : 
- a high level of safety; 
- the protection of the environment; 
- an increase in ATC capacity; 
- effective control of costs; 
- the most efficient use of available ATC capacity. 
This Annex aims to analyse each of these goals, describe what is required in each case, and 
explain what needs to be done. In doing so, and without attempting to prejudge how the 
present institutional arrangements might be improved, the Annex pays particular attention 
to instances where they appear to be causing problems which hinder development. 
1. A high level of safety 
The main purpose of air traffic management systems is to ensure that aircraft can move 
about in safety, since it is established that, without air traffic control, the risk of mid-air 
collision would be intolerably high (see Appendix 1). 
On the basis of the available indicators, it seems fair to say that this objective has been 
achieved in Europe: since the Zagreb collision in September 1976, there have been no 
further collisions between two airliners in controlled airspace over the continent. 
Furthermore, the total number of air misses has remained relatively stable since the 1980s 
in spite of the considerable increase in air traffic (see Appendix 2). 
Nevertheless, given the expected growth in traffic, with a higher density of aircraft in an 
increasingly large proportion of Europe's airspace, even greater efforts must be made to 
maintain and, if possible, improve the efficiency of the European air traffic management 
system. 
However, safety activities in the field of air traffic management will have to be carried out 
taking into account that they have to be integrated with the other areas of the civil aviation 
industry. 
Accordingly, several measures must be considered without further delay. 
Version of 5 3 96 - 055ann.96/EN 
fy 
1.1. The use of airborne collision avoidance systems (ACAS) 
Aircraft must be equipped with a device which enables them to react in the event of loss of 
separation from other aircraft. The use of such equipment has been made obligatory in the 
United States in the wake of mid-air collisions which aroused great concern among the 
American public. Such a radical decision is being resisted in Europe, where controllers 
seem to fear that it would lead aircrews to take sudden avoidance action which might create 
even more dangerous situations. Nevertheless, all the experimental data show that the use 
of such equipment would improve safety in 95 % of cases and create an additional risk in 
only 3% of cases. In the light of such clear evidence, the aviation community has decided 
to move swiftly to develop procedures whereby these additional risks can be eliminated and 
the use of anti-collision equipment can be made obligatory from January 2000. Some still 
consider that not enough simulation and tests have been carried out to validate this decision 
while others still consider the implementation date should be brought forward. 
Comment : The difficulty to arbitrate between various points of view demonstrates that 
the present arrangements lack of proper decision-making aids and of efficient 
decision-making mechanisms. 
1.2. The use of Short-Term Conflict Alert (STCA). 
Appendix 1 describes how air traffic control is provided and specifies that the use of 
modern software allows, by integrating flight and radar datas, the calculation of predicted 
trajectories of aircraft and thus the anticipation of possible conflicts. Such systems, called 
Short-Term Conflict Alert (STCA), constitute a safeguard mechanism, which is rapidly 
becoming indispensable in areas of dense traffic, it has therefore been decided to implement 
them in all centres of the "core area" before the and of 1998. 
This target date seems very distant, and might possibly be capable of being brought 
forward. 
Comment : In this case also, more far-reaching and determinate decisions would require 
proper decision-making aids and efficient decision-making mechanisms. 
1.3. Developing a safety policy 
In view of their priority tasks, air traffic control organisations believe they have a 
responsibility to ensure that their services provide the highest possible level of safety. All 
down the line, each individual assumes complete responsibility for his or her role in this 
regard. "Quality control" in this context means examining how air misses are handled and 
action is taken when automatic alarm systems are triggered (see Appendix 1). 
Since the air traffic controller's work involves constant trade-offs between safety and 
efficiency, to say nothing of customer satisfaction, a number of ATC bodies have realised 
that it is increasingly risky to allow such decisions to be made purely at the operational 
level, particularly in an environment where there is growing pressure from users on 
puncmality. They have concluded that what is needed is a genuine safety policy aimed at 
preventing incidents and accidents based on clear objectives and continuous surveillance -
Version of 5.3.96 - 055ann.96/EN 2 
*? 
such as was drawn up by the industry long ago for the purposes of quality control. This 
implies also setting up in each operational centre a specialised, independent unit with its 
own resources and the ability to gather information using not only traditional methods but 
also the incident processing and confidential reporting systems on which the Commission 
is currently working. 
Comment : the development of a comprehensive safety policy would require both a truly 
global vision and a clearer distinction between regulatory and service 
provision functions. 
1.4. Other actions in the field of safety 
To deal with the ever-growing number of flights, new and more fully-automated 
technologies must be used operationally. The introduction of these new technologies will 
appreciably alter the human role in the actual control of movements in the air. It is 
important that sufficiently powerful tools be available to detect the new problems which 
human beings will have to face; to improve the recogmtion of the human factors involved 
in ATM; and to ensure that techniques similar to those already used for pilot training are 
integrated into the training of controllers. 
Comment : the definition and implementation of an ambitious work programme in the 
field of human factors will require reinforced co-operation in the research 
and technological development activities of all the parties involved and 
additional financial resources. 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055ann 96/EN 3 
? <? 
2. The Protection of the environment 
Environmentalists do not have a very positive image of aviation, and congestion and the 
resulting delays are regarded as further causes of pollution and nuisance. In fact, the 
situation is otherwise: for obvious safety reasons, the entire system of air traffic 
management, and in particular flow management, aims at keeping aircraft waiting on the 
ground with their engines stopped rather than waisting time in the air. Under these 
conditions, improving the flow of air traffic would have no direct effect upon the 
environment. 
Nevertheless, it is generally accepted (see Appendixes 1 and 2) that the network of air 
routes in Europe adds 10% to the distances travelled and could be improved so as to reduce 
this excess by half, thus reducing proportionately the amount of fuel consumed and 
pollutants emitted. 
Similarly, the improved use of airspace resulting from a reduction in vertical separations 
would make for optimum flight profiles, thus reducing consumption. 
Accordingly the implementation of a Community strategy for improving the efficiency of 
air traffic management in Europe, in particular by making better use of airspace, reducing 
route lengths and avoiding unnecessary airborne holdings would make a significant 
contribution to sustainable mobility, beneficial also from an environmental point of view. 
Comment : the development of a consistent ATM policy requires, a broader view to 
ensure consistency with policy aims in other fields. 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055ann.96/EN 4 
3^ 
3. Increasing A TC capacity 
As is emphasized by all airspace users, after meeting safety requirements, the first priority 
must be to increase the capacity of Europe's air traffic control system. 
This is the simplest way to meet all the needs and to give everybody the freedom of 
movement and freedom of choice which are the foundations of any democratic society, if 
complex and controversial regulation for market access and access to airspace are to be 
avoided. 
Moreover, within an air transport system based on a market economy and free market 
access, it is important to allow all operators to plan and operate their flights in accordance 
with their perception of demand. 
To achieve these objectives, the aviation community acting within the framework of ECAC 
has adopted a harmonisation and integration strategy which aims to set up a unified air 
traffic management system. This is supported by the Commission to a significant extent 
and, indeed, by all the other interested parties, who have frequently stated their approval 
of the contribution of the EATCHIP and APATSI programmes towards implementing that 
strategy. 
This chapter, therefore, considers what should be done to ensure the timely and effective 
implementation of these programmes. 
3.1 Common objectives 
Any programme for increasing capacity must be based on common operational objectives 
and a common implementation timetable to ensure that supply matches demand and to 
coordinate the expenditure involved. It would be an inefficient use of resources if the 
equipment introduced by a control organisation could not be used to maximum capacity 
because neighbouring organisations were working to a different timetable or had not 
matched their equipment to the needs of the system. 
Although, the relevant work is indeed being done within the EATCHIP and CIP framework, 
a question mark hangs over these objectives since, at present, they constitute only voluntary 
commitments on the part of the ECAC States. 
Up to now, goodwill and a commonality of interest have been sufficient to ensure that these 
commitments are honoured, as can be seen from the progress made in implementing the 
CIP. Consequently, there would seem to be no reason why these commitments should be 
made formal and mandatory: it is, moreover, difficult to oblige States to comply with 
objectives when their ability to do so depends on the availability of financial resources over 
which they do not have complete control. 
of 5.3.96 - 055ann96/EN 
!>{ 
Nevertheless, it would be useful to give these objectives a more formal status so as to 
enable the development of an investment policy stimulated by financial incentives from 
Community funds (networks, cohesion, cooperation) or any other available fund. 
In this spirit, it might be necessary as well to consider setting up of a specialised fund, 
financed by ATC fees and managed by a central ATM authority. 
Comment : the present situation shows that decisions taken are insufficiently binding, are 
not followed up adequately, and cannot be adequately supported financially 
to ensure their proper implementation. 
3.2 Common procedures and specifications 
One of the major reasons for the inefficiency of the present European ATC system is the 
difference in technical and operational specifications between the various ATC systems in 
use in Europe. This has led to the coexistence of mutually incompatible technical equipment 
with different levels of performance. The result is a major loss in overall ATC capacity and, 
probably, safety levels which differ from one system to another. 
The EATCHIP programme has therefore tackled this problem, and EUROCONTROL has 
been asked to draw up the necessary common procedures and specifications, some of which 
will be given a mandatory character and known as "EUROCONTROL standards"1. 
The development of common procedures and technical specifications is indeed a sine qua 
non for providing Europe with a unified air traffic management system. In addition, the 
single market in ATM equipment and services cannot become a reality without common 
technical specifications. The European Parliament and the Council have, on a number of 
occasions, drawn attention to the importance of such procedures and specifications and have 
asked the Commission to do everything possible to facilitate the technical harmomsation 
work needed for this purpose. 
Accordingly, on 19 July 1993, the Community adopted Directive 93/65/EEC on the 
definition and use of compatible technical specifications for the procurement of equipment 
and systems for air traffic management. This Directive makes "EUROCONTROL 
standards" mandatory at Community level. 
But the work required to make this harmomsation and develop common procedures and 
requirements is heavy and costly. EUROCONTROL estimates its cost at 68 MECU for 
1994 alone, and that figure will have to increase in coming years if the input required for 
the achievement of the Convergence and Implementation Programme (CIP) are to be 
available in due time. It is therefore necessary to make additional resources available to give 
this work a new impetus and allow the involvement of more stakeholders. 
"EUROCONTROL standard", which are mandatory technical specifications, are not to be confused with European standards. 
The latter are drawn up by European standardisation bodies, initially as voluntary technical specifications which may become 
mandatory in certain cases and are therefore processed through the Community legislative machinery. 
Version of 5.396 - 055ann.96/EN 6 
?* 
Comment : there is clearly a need for more financial support to implement and 
accelerate the standardisation work programme. 
Such financial support must, however, go hand in hand with a number of organisational or 
institutional reforms to make the action more effective. 
One of the major weaknesses in the present process lies in the decision-making process 
which requires unanimity. Other more flexible procedures must therefore be considered. 
Nor does the present decision-making process sufficiently involve the member countries of 
ECAC which are not members of EUROCONTROL and which therefore have only a moral 
commitment to the EATCHIP programme. Ways must therefore be found of enabling all 
the participating States to become genuinely committed to this programme. 
Comment : there appears to be a lack of effective decision-making mechanisms involving 
all ECAC partners. 
While recognising the value and the important contribution of the work undertaken within 
the EATCHIP framework, it is generally admitted that procedures and technical 
specifications are not being produced as rapidly as they should be. Apart from the 
decision-making aspects which hamper the process, other organisational difficulties also 
slow it down significantly. 
The first difficulty is the length of time taken to identify common specifications, notably 
"EUROCONTROL standards", which are needed. Work on producing these common 
technical specifications and standards must get under way in good time so that the 
organisations concerned can have them when they need them. This applies not only to the 
results of research and development but also to the application of conventional technologies. 
As regards equipment using conventional technology, which EUROCONTROL's current 
standardisation programme is largely concerned with, a structure must be set up to enable 
the early identification of technical matters which ought become the subject of 
"EUROCONTROL standards". 
Since new technologies are of major importance for the system of the future because without 
them, it will be impossible to achieve a sufficient increase in the system's capacity, stronger 
links must be forged between R&D and the production of common specifications. This 
presupposes efficient decision-making procedures whereby the techniques and concepts to 
be introduced can be selected. Standardisation work would thus get under way in good time 
so that the necessary standards or specifications are available when the equipment is ready 
to be placed on the market. Having in mind the increasing integration between on-board and 
ground systems, any review of this area must now cover these two aspects in the perspective 
of a global system. 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055ann.96/EN 
3^> 
The second difficulty lies in the indiscriminate nature of standardisation work as done today. 
The real added value of EATCHIP is its ability to produce the common operational 
requirements, functional specifications and specifications for interoperability which are 
needed to ensure the harmonization and integration of Europe's ATC systems. These 
specifications, therefore, need contain only a limited amount of detail, leaving scope for 
additional equipment specifications to be drawn up by industry within the framework of the 
"new approach" for standardisation. Consequently, there must be closer cooperation 
between the various bodies involved in standardisation on the basis of their respective 
spheres of competence. For instance, in the case of questions relating to data processing 
or telecommunication systems, where existing standards can be reused or modified it might 
be more efficient to delegate most of the work to the European standardisation bodies. 
The third difficulty arises from the fact that industry is not sufficiently involved. Its 
participation in the harmomsation work upstream of its normal activities would enable the 
other participants to benefit from its experience and thus develop practical solutions at lower 
cost. Moreover, since operational requirements have a significant influence on the market, 
it is only sensible that industry should be given an opportunity to express its opinion on a 
particular technology so that the maximum cost/benefit can be achieved. Suitable equipment 
could thus be made available more rapidly, and European industry would be in a better 
position to compete on the world market. From this viewpoint, European industry must 
organise itself so as to play its proper role in the technical harmonization process. The 
EUROCAE experience suggests that a pre-standardisation organisation should be set up, 
bringing together all the industries concerned. 
The last difficulty arises from the fact that there are no means of ensuring that common 
specifications are complied with. There is little point in making them mandatory if there is 
no way of ensuring that they are actually applied. An efficient way of doing so might be 
to certify ATC equipment and systems. Although the interoperability of the these systems 
must be a top priority, other considerations such as the safety level of the service provided 
or its standard of performance might be treated in the same way. 
Comment : there appears to be an inefficient use of available resources suggesting a 
need for appropriate procedures and decision-making mechanisms to identify 
candidate subjects for standardisation; to allocate tasks among the various 
players according to their know-how; to prepare the corresponding 
standardisation mandate for specialised European standardisation bodies; 
and to ensure the effective implmentation of specifications and satndards 
through certification or labelling, as the case may be, for ATM equipments 
and systems. 
3.3. VHF frequencies 
Air traffic control tasks cannot be carried out without radiotelephony (RT) communications 
between aircraft and control centres. In Europe, these communications use VHF (Very 
High Frequency) wavebands, with each controller and each sector being assigned a 
particular frequency with, sometimes, additional contingency frequencies. 
Version of 5.3.% - 055ann.96/EN 8 
3<7 
Increasing air traffic control capacity while using the technology currently available (see 
Appendix 1) means increasing the number of sectors, and this in turn means making 
available a greater number of frequencies, since any given frequency can be assigned to two 
different sectors only if they are sufficiently far apart for there to be no possible confusion 
or mutual interference. 
Given the performance of the equipment used, the transmission of a radio message requires 
a certain bandwidth, so that the VHF spectrum assigned to aviation by the International 
Telecommunication Union (ITU) is divided up into a limited number of usable frequencies. 
(This bandwidth is currently 25 kHz : ICAO is working to reduce it to 8.33 kHz, but it will 
be the end of the century before all airliners can be fitted with the necessary equipment.) 
Any plans for a better use of airspace and any changes to its sectoral division mean that, 
at the same time, steps must be taken to reallocate frequencies. However, those States 
which have been allocated frequencies by the ITU tend to regard them as theirs by right, 
and thus resist any attempts at reallocation. 
To deal with this problem, EUROCONTROL has set up an advisory committee, regarded 
as neutral and independent, to give its opinion on any reallocations. However because, as 
the committee's name indicates, its opinions are in no way binding, it would be necessary 
to give it real authority to make its decisions enforceable. 
Comment : there is clearly a lack of effective decision-making mechanisms with adequate 
enforcement authority to ensure the most efficient use of scarce resources, 
such as VHF frequencies.. 
3.4 The use of airspace 
Increasing the capacity of the air traffic control system means increasing the amount of 
airspace which may be used by non-military aircraft; and putting more aircraft into a given 
volume of airspace. In the following paragraphs, therefore, we shall consider how this can 
be done with the ATC techniques currently in use, given the performance of the available 
equipment (see Appendixes 1 and 2). 
3.4.1 The use of military airspace 
The simplest way to make available more airspace for civil aviation is to take some of the 
airspace reserved for the armed forces and convert it into non-military or mixed 
civil/military airspace - on the understanding that the military users of airspace must 
nevertheless be enabled to carry out their missions under acceptable conditions. 
Accordingly, EUROCONTROL, within the framework of the EATCHIP programme, has 
developed the "flexible use of airspace" (FUA) concept which was adopted by ECAC 
Ministers at their meeting in Copenhagen in June 1994. 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055ann.96/EN 9 
X 
The idea is that non-military aircraft would be able to use some of the airspace hitherto 
reserved for the armed forces if the use of this airspace were subject to joint planning, 
taking account of both civilian and military needs. As with the management of air traffic 
flows (see COM(95)318 final), this concept will be implemented in three stages : 
(i) strategic planning, to ensure that civil aviation requirements are, as far as possible, taken 
into account in the planning of military activities, and that users are given sufficient notice 
of the additional routes to be made available and of the conditions under which they can be 
used; (ii) a pre-tactical phase, whereby these availabilities and conditions are confirmed or 
modified 24 hours in advance; and (iii) a tactical phase on the acmal day of operation, when 
the objective is to maintain compatibility between the two activities and to take all 
appropriate measures to ensure sufficient flexibility to satisfy both civil and military 
requirements. 
This concept is being implemented at national level, which means that where it proves 
impossible to satisfy each party's needs under acceptable conditions, arbitration is provided 
by each individual country, regardless of the difficulties that might be created for its 
neighbours. 
It might therefore be questioned whether it would not be more efficient and equitable to 
envisage a collective system for managing the whole European airspace, taking account of 
the needs of all users, whether civilian or military, commercial or recreational, just as it has 
been possible to centralise the management of air traffic flows. 
This could be done without affecting the sovereignty of individual countries as far as 
national security is concerned. The armed forces' need for airspace -must indeed not be 
confused with the requirements of national defence : in the former case, what is required 
is a system which would provide sufficient access to airspace to enable the armed forces to 
carry out training or combat missions on a pre-set priority basis, whereas in the latter case 
it is sufficient to ensure that individual countries have all the information they need to object 
to any violation of their airspace, and that they have the right to re-establish complete 
sovereignty whenever necessary in serious crisis or conflict situations. 
Comment : the fact that allocation of airspace between military and civil use is effectively 
made at a national rather than international level shows a lack of a 
comprehensive view of Europe's airspace needs. It would be more 
satisfactory and efficient to manage the military/civil uses of Europe's 
airspace on a collective basis (taking as a model the management of air 
traffic flows), based on legal commitments which guarantee both an equitable 
access to the airspace for military needs and the safeguarding of the 
national defense requirements of individual countries. 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055ann.96/EN 10 
•M 
3.4.2 Reorganisation of routes and sectors 
The routes network and the sectoral division of controlled airspace are among the 
recognised weak points of Europe's air traffic control system, especially when compared 
to the situation in the United States. It would appear that, in spite of all the planning work 
put in by EUROCONTROL and the ICAO, national frontiers and constraints both 
geopolitical and geoeconomic have had too great an influence on the organisation of air 
traffic control to enable the optimisation of the route network and the division of European 
airspace into control sectors. 
Experts are calling for a wholesale review of these two aspects, taking into account the fact 
that, if the control system were operating at optimum efficiency, capacity in certain 
particularly crowded areas of Europe's airspace could be increased by anything from 20% 
to 40%. 
Before this can be brought about, however, major studies and long and costly simulations 
must first be undertaken : accordingly, additional finance needs to be provided for the teams 
who are working on this problem. Such a scheme fits logically into the development of 
Trans-European Networks, and could be given significant assistance from the Community 
funds. 
Finding appropriate solutions will, no doubt, mean having to adjudicate between divergent 
interests. Instimtional arrangements should therefore be introduced not only to provide an 
overview of the optimisation process but also to enable the necessary judgements to be made 
at the right time and binding decisions to be taken. 
Comment : a comprehensive restructuring of the European airspace, on the basis of 
operational efficiency regardless of national boundaries, requires additional 
means and resources, objective assessment of the chosen solutions, and an 
effective decision-taking structure. 
3A.3> Vertical separations 
Above flight level 290, vertical separations are of 2,000 feet, although modern altimeters 
and the adoption of appropriate procedures would make it possible to reduce this separation 
to 1,000 feet, as is the case in the lower airspace. 
Experts estimate that this would increase capacity by between 10% and 40%, depending on 
the region concerned and the complexity of the airspace involved. 
However, before such a decision can be implemented, a number of prior steps must be 
taken : aircraft must be suitably equipped, and operational procedures must be altered. 
Moreover, if this measure is to have its maximum effect, there must be a new and more 
suitable division of the airspace into sectors - one that is compatible with controllers' 
workloads - and the number of controllers will probably have to be increased. 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055ann.96/EN 1 1 
3> 
At present, the aviation community is divided as to the merits of such a change, and on how 
soon it should take place. The airspace users want it implemented as soon as possible since 
initial cost/benefit analyses indicate that it would lead to a considerable improvement in the 
service provided and have persuaded ECAC to adopt a target date of 2001 for 
implementation. On their side, airline pilots and air traffic controllers hold that insufficient 
tests and validation have taken place up to now to enable decision to be taken on reducing 
vertical separation. They stress that such a decision must be taken for the whole of Europe 
at once and must take due account of human factors effects. 
Comment : this case illustrates again a lack of proper decision-making aids and efficient 
decision-making mechanisms. 
3.4.4 Free flight 
Another way of increasing capacity would be to use all the space available rather than to 
concentrate traffic within pre-set routes. This, moreover, would give users extreme 
flexibility. That is why the US authorities have recently set themselves the objective of 
making free flight possible. 
Nevertheless, the ATC techniques used today (see Appendix 1) require aircraft to follow 
pre-set routes so that controllers know where their traffic is; consequently, free flight 
appears, at this stage, to be a particularly ambitious objective, and one difficult to achieve 
in the short term. As the work carried out in the United States seems to suggest, it would 
probably mean shifting some responsibility from the controller to the pilot, the latter being 
responsible for deciding on the simplest collision avoidance manoeuvres to take. More 
detailed thought will also have to be given to the development of traffic flow management 
techniques and their integration into air traffic control. It is thus probable that free flight 
will take some time to develop, and might even not be achievable in the core area of Europe 
if it is to be truly "free". 
In the shorter term, however, there is nothing to prevent additional routes being created to 
offer users more direct itineraries; and to "dilute" the traffic by putting more aircraft into 
a given volume of airspace. Paradoxically, although the controller's task is, in some 
respects, facilitated by channelling traffic along air routes, it also makes it more complex, 
particularly where these routes intersect. 
If the number of routes is to be increased they must become independent of ground-based 
navigational aids (navaids). Alternatively, there must be smaller lateral separations between 
airways than those in force today. 
Although modern navigational equipment using conventional ground navaids enables pilots 
to follow any route they choose between reporting points without co-located navaids, they 
do not yet allow lateral separations to be reduced. The navigational precision required to 
achieve this objective (2 km) will become possible only if there is a denser network of DME 
stations or if satellite navigation systems come to be used as the principal means of 
navigation. 
Version of 5.3.% - 055ann.96/EN 12 
3* 
These considerations have given rise to the development of the concept of area navigation 
(RNAV), which is more realistic in the short term than the objective of free flight and is 
particularly advantageous for terminal areas where the dilution of traffic by multiple 
approach and departure patterns would compensate for the concentration of traffic which 
results from converging arrivals and departures. 
It has already been decided that the first stage of implementing this concept - Basic Area 
Navigation (BRNAV) -, enabling new routes to be created, will begin on 1 January 1998. 
Not until the second stage, however, - Precision Area Navigation (PRNAV) - planned for 
2005 will the most significant improvements take place, with a reduction in the longitudinal 
separations between routes or approach and departure tracks. Its implementation largely 
depends on the production and certification of more accurate navigation systems such as the 
GNSS. 
Comment : There is also a need for additional financial resources to speed up the 
standardisation work on precision area navigation (PRNAV) and to produce 
a European component of the future GNSS which can be used as a primary 
means of navigation. 
3.5 Developing the basic infrastructure 
Developing ATC capacities means considerable expenditure within the framework of the 
national CIPs. According to the figures made available for the fourth ministerial meeting 
of ECAC in June 1994, an average of 1 200 MECU have been spent each year by the 
ECAC States since 1990 to improve their ATM infrastructures and it is generally admitted 
that the same amount of money needs to be invested each year at least up to 1998 in order 
to achieve the objectives of the ECAC en-route strategy. 
While it is clearly a responsibility for the ECAC countries and in particular for their ATC 
service provides, to make the necessary investment, various Community funds can be used 
to help implement them, and a large number of applications for such assistance have already 
been submitted by the Member States and associate States. 
To enable these funds to be used as efficiently as possible, it has been found necessary to 
draw up a strategy in terms of investment priorities at European level over the next five 
years, in order to make sure that they will be allocated to support these projects which 
would yield the best results in terms of improving capacity and safety. 
Accordingly, the Commission and EUROCONTROL have launched a smdy aimed at 
identifying, the most beneficial technical changes which concluded that priority should be 
given to projects which improve : 
- the continuity and quality of surveillance in Europe; 
- the coverage and quality of the communication system; 
- the interoperability of ATC systems and the automation of operational coordination. 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055ann.96/EN 13 
3f 
In addition, steps must be taken to create a European component for the global navigation 
satellite system which, in January 1994, the Community decided to make one of its 
priorities.2 
Detailed technical descriptions of the guidelines for such projects are given in Appendix 3. 
In the course of 1995, the Commission has held a series of meetings with experts from the 
Member States to confirm and flesh out this strategy. It has invited industry representatives 
to attend these meetings so as to stimulate public/private sector partnership initiatives, as 
requested by the European Council. 
Nevertheless, at this stage projects remain too "national" and it has not been possible to 
stimulate multinational co-operation for developing implementation projects. Even more, the 
lack of a comprehensive picture makes it difficult to evaluate the benefits in terms of the 
overall effect of implementing these various national projects, or the need for the financial 
aid requested. It is therefore not possible at this stage to evaluate if the requested funding 
is really necessary to increase capacity in areas where the local ATC service provider would 
not have the necessary resources to meet the targets agreed collectively. 
Even if the outlook for feasability studies and large scale demonstration projects is more 
satisfactory, thanks in particular to the work carried out by EUROCONTROL in the 
framework of its STAR programme, there is a risk that the same shortcomings will arise 
at the implementation stage. 
This situation confirms largely the statements in previous Section 3.1. about not only the 
need for more stringent common objectives, but also of financial tools to stimulate their 
achievement. 
It appears also that as far as implementation of infrastructure is concerned, co-operation is 
not spontaneous. Since joint action can hardly be dictated, it should be encouraged thjough 
financial tools, whenever joint action would prove more cost-effective for the collectivity 
at large. 
Comment : While recognising that the provision of infrastructure is primarily a matter 
for individual countries, there is a need to reinforce consistency and 
co-operation between them. As far as this is concerned, there is a lack of 
decision-taking structures, and financial tools to support a real investment 
policy and stimulate co-operative action. 
2 COM(94) 238 final, 14.6.1994. 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055ann.96<EN 14 
l*)& 
3.6. Human resources 
The ECAC Ministers, at their meeting in London in March 1992, asked for a report to be 
drawn up on the manpower requirements necessary to implement the remaining phases of 
the current ECAC strategy. Such an exercise is vital if common objectives are to be attained 
and consistency is to be achieved between different systems. Shortage of trained manpower 
in one area should not be allowed to affect the effectiveness in other areas, and thereby 
jeopardise the overall efficiency of the system. 
3.6.1. Manpower planning 
In response to the Ministers' request, EUROCONTROL formed a working group to smdy 
personnel issues, with a mandate to examine the availability, deployment and motivation of 
air traffic controllers. This group presented its first report in July 1993, according to which 
there will be a shortage of controllers in the ECAC area up until at least 1997. This will 
obviously have a direct impact on the capacity offered. 
In the light of these findings the EATCHIP Project Board set up a Human Resource Team, 
which at its first meeting in March 1994 drew up a programme to promote work in the 
Human Resources field. The EATCHIP Human Resources Programme includes the 
harmomsation of national initiatives to ensure that there is, across the ECAC area, sufficient 
highly trained and motivated manpower. But if this co-operative and co-ordinated approach 
seems appropriate to overcome the shortage of qualified operational personnel, the lack of 
transparency in terms of the availability of accurate and up to date figures remain a major 
obstacle to progress in this field. Successful manpower planning depends on precise analyses 
of current resources and anticipated needs; and to this end ECAC partners should work 
closely together to make the necessary information available. 
Comment : It would also be advisable to set up appropriate procedures to ensure that 
common objectives are adopted and applied in the field of human resources. 
To do so there is a lack of decision-making aids and of efficient 
decision-making mechanisms. 
3.6.2. Training 
Achieving a "seamless" ATM system in Europe requires a closer alignment of existing 
systems, and as such will have major implications for the recruitment, training, organisation 
and management of human resources. A smdy undertaken on behalf of the Commission in 
1992 into 'Standards in ATC Schools of the EEC States'3 highlights the major differences 
which currently exist between the recruitment and training procedures in the Member States. 
Study of standards in the ATC schools of EEC States. Dr. R. Baldwin - 31.12.1992. 
Version of 5 3.96 - 055ann.96/EN 15 
V 
The study concludes : 
States have widely different forms of training programmes, of varying duration. Within 
the training programmes there are formal courses at the training centres: these also 
differ widely in terms of specific courses, and the order and way in which they are 
combined to meet local needs. 
many ATC training staff lack recent operational experience which lowers the level of 
tuition; 
there is a great diversity in present educational entry requirements for trainees (school 
leaving age / post-university studies); 
few training centres are inspected by an outside body. 
Harmomsation of recruitment and training procedures is therefore necessary to maintain and 
enhance the quality of performance and the level of safety. These objectives could probably 
be best obtained by establishing standards for common core training and a system of 
personnel licensing. Recourse to the latter would not only ensure high quality standards but 
also provide a highly trained mobile workforce. 
Furthemore, the introduction of such provisions will require regular inspection and control 
by an independent outside body to ensure that standards are maintained. 
Comment : there is a lack of decision-making aids and of efficient decision-making 
structures to examine the possibility of developing systems for recruiting and 
licensing air traffic controllers, and for establishing procedures for 
harmonising training programmes and certifying training facilities. 
3.7. Development of new concepts and use of higher-performance technologies. 
The forecast traffic growth over the next 15 years shows that long term solutions to current 
ATM problems require a huge increase of ATC capacity. Consequently, the RTD activities 
shall be targeted at enabling an Air Traffic Management System to be put into service from 
2005 onwards with the capacity to meet projected demand well into the next century. This 
system would rely heavily on technology development to provide communication, navigation 
and surveillance functions with the required accuracy, reliability, availability and integrity, 
together with a significant level of automation of the air traffic control functions to enable 
controllers to handle the necessary volume of traffic safely. Such a system should provide 
an integrated approach to Air Traffic Management, including ATM at the airport, from pre-
departure planning (strategic and tactical) through all flight and ground control phases to 
passenger disembarkation at the final destination. 
A description of the views of the Commission on building the future European Air Traffic 
Management is given in Appendix 4. 
Version of 5.3.% - 055ann.96/EN 16 
hT-
A first limited (8 MECU) initiative of the Commission in this area was carried out in the 
context of the Transport Programme (Euret) of the 2nd Framework Programme (1987-91), 
with research into on ATM scenarios, Aeronautical Telecommunication Networks (ATN) 
and Controller Working Positions. In the 4th Framework Programme (1994-98), and 
through the Preparatory actions (APAS '94), considerably more resources (around 110 
MECU) are being dedicated to ATM through the Transport, Industrial and Materials 
Technologies and Telematics Programmes, constituting a comprehensive approach to the 
development of the future system, which will be pursued in the 5th Framework Programme. 
The ATM and airport activities of the individual programmes have been developed within 
the framework of ECARDA 4 (European Coherent Approach to Research and Development 
in ATM), which in turn is designed to integrate with the activities of Eurocontrol, the 
European Space Agency (ESA) and the Member States. 
For its part EUROCONTROL is managing huge programmes for testing and validating new 
concepts and tools, the STAR5 and PHARE6 Programmes, which amount to an average of 
60 MECU per year. Being financed through ATC user charges, and users being reluctant 
to pay for long term research, this Programme is aiming primarely at short and medium 
term applied research. The work is largely done by the EUROCONTROL Experimental 
Center. 
Finally several European countries have their own RTD activities, but, despite the attempts 
made in the framework of ECARDA, there is little knowledge on their precise content and 
cost. There seems also to be very little dissemination of their results. 
All these efforts in progress should be improved by means of a continuous co-ordination 
process involving all interested parties; and enabling to advise, plan and monitor the RTD 
activities. This has been largely recognised by various studies sponsored by the Commission 
or EUROCONTROL (PRAISE)7 to examine how to manage efficiently the RTD activities 
in Europe and facilitate the transition from research towards implementation 
This should result in proposals for further RTD actions ; and in selection of the appropriate 
components and technologies to be put into operation, starting from the process of their 
validation through demonstrations, to their development by standardisation activities until 
their implementation as infrastructure projects. 
Suggestion of themes, where further RTD activities are needed, should help building 
workprogrammes for all RTD actions, funded by the Community, European countries or 
any existing or future specialist organisation. 
Where a component or technology is considered sufficiently mature to start its 
implementation, further initiatives should be taken to ensure that the previous RTD actions 
result in follow-up projects (see section 3.5 and appendix 3). The operational and pre-
SEC (94) 1475 of 13.09.94 
STAR : Studies, Test and Applied Research 
6 PHARE : Programme for Harmonised ATM Research in EUROCONTROL 
7 PRAISE : Preparation of an RTD programme in support of EATMS. 
Version of 5 3.96 - 055ann.96/EN 17 
b\ 
operational environment, which has been simulated in RTD activities, should be 
experimented in a full scale. 
RTD activities could suggest a degree of technical development, requiring the drafting of 
standards before implementing the component or technology. The whole standardisation 
process starts, in most cases, from draft specifications resulting from a RTD activity. This 
is the third area where the co-ordination process should provide a consolidated view of those 
RTD activities which shall produce draft standards eligible for being proposed as 
contributions to the European and worldwide standardisation process. 
Even so, in order to produce the benefits of this consolidated view in due time, Research 
and Technical Development activities need to be further increased and focused appropriately 
so that scarce financial and human resources are used as efficiently as possible. This implies 
that a real research policy is developed and that appropriate structures are put in place in 
order to select the most promising options, co-ordinate actions by the various participants 
and advise on timely standardisation and implementation so that benefits of new technologies 
can be reaped at the most appropriate time. 
Comments : while recognising that the final decision in RTD activities remains the 
responsibility of individual countries, the European Community, and any specialist 
organisation, there is a need to reinforce consistency and co-operation between them. 
4. Controlling the costs 
While increased ATC capacity in Europe must produce improvements in the service 
provided and hence, by reducing delays, cost savings benefitting the public at large, there 
is also a price to be paid which is beginning to cause concern to air space users who, in 
Europe at least, have to foot the entire bill for the service provided, through user charges. 
Taking into account the increasing importance of air transport in modern economies, it is 
essential that everything possible be done to keep these costs to a minimum, in order to 
enhance the competitiveness of the European States. 
This presupposes a need both to review existing cost structures, and ways of reducing costs, 
but also to look at the scope for a more rational approach to technological choices and 
investment through the development of analytical cost-benefit tools adapted to the air traffic 
management sector. 
It is in this spirit that this chapter looks at the various areas where action could favourably 
influence changes in the pattern of costs which are ultimately borne by the user. 
4.1. The route network 
Due to the controlling strategies used so far (see Appendix 1) aircraft are obliged to follow 
predetermined routes which make up the overall air route network. 
Version of 5.3 96 - 055ann.96/EN 
fa 
A number of objective or subjective constraints (location of navaids, interconnection of 
arrival/departure trajectories, simplification of control tasks, bypassing of military areas, 
frontier mapping, etc) have brought about a situation where the experts believe that, on 
average, aircraft cover a distance 10% greater than the length of the most direct flight 
routes. This entails significant extra costs, estimated at 1 500 million ecus per year for 
Europe as a whole. 
By contrast, however, the effects on costs of ATC constraints on flight profiles, whereby 
aircraft are obliged to observe flight levels Which differ from the optimum profile, are only 
negligible. 
Taking into account the necessary compromises associated with the reduction of distances 
travelled and the objective constraints referred to above, in particular the need to maximise 
the total capacity of the airspace, the experts consider that it would be possible to reduce 
by 4% the distances travelled in Europe, resulting in an annual saving of 600 million ECU 
(INSTAR smdy). 
This is a further reason for revising the route network and introducing the concept of area 
navigation without delay (PRNAV). 
Such a revision may nevertheless have significant implications for traffic orientation 
schemes, and hence an impact on the income of ATC service providers which should not 
be ignored. Accordingly any decision in this field will require difficult arbitration between 
many conflicting interests. 
Comment : a comprehensive restructuring of European airspace, on the basis of 
cost-efficiency, regardless of national boundaries, requires additional means 
and resources, an objective assessment of the chosen solutions; and an 
effective decision-taking structure. 
4.2. Service production costs. 
Until very recently, air navigation services were provided by national administrations or by 
organisations of comparable status in the form of a public service, for which the first 
priority was to meet safety objectives. This has not always resulted in optimum cost 
efficiency, especially since, even when the service is charged to the users, charges are 
calculated so as to cover all the expenditures regardless of their amount. 
Changes in thinking and pressure from users are beginning to call this situation into 
question, and it would be useful to examine whether there are ways of supporting and 
encouraging this new tendency. According to assessments made in the course of the 
INSTAR smdy, improved cost efficiency in the production of control services would enable 
savings to be made to the tune of 600 million ecus per year in Europe - that is, between 20 
and 25% of the total costs. 
Version of 5.3 96 • 055ann.96/EN 19 
h> 
4.2.1. Operation 
Since 80% of costs are operating costs - 58% for staff expenditure and 22% for 
miscellaneous operating expenditure - it follows that the most significant improvements 
should be sought in the area of day-to-day management. 
Against this background, certain people criticise the number of control centres in Europe 
and advocate regrouping them in a reduced number of larger centres so as to take advantage 
of economies of scale. At the same time, others argue that reducing the size of centres will 
contribute to improvements in the quality of human relations and the working environment, 
and hence productivity, which would cancel out any economies of scale of fewer, larger 
centres. 
However that may be, comparisons carried out so far between centres do not show any link 
between costs and the size of centres. 
It seems better, therefore, to rely on the ability of the executives and managers to achieve 
the best possible cost efficiency, taking into account their political and social environment 
and traditions. As mentioned in the INSTAR study, this should aim primarily at reducing 
the cost of support personnel and miscellaneous operating expenditure, as well as 
controllers' productivity. 
Comment : the present situation is caracterised by the lack of adequate cost control and 
the need to set up the appropriate institutional framework in which ATC 
providers would be encouraged to improve their efficiency and managerial 
skills. 
4.2.2. Investment 
Accounting as it does for 20% of total costs, investment is also an area which merits more 
detailed examination, all the more so as more than a third is accounted for by interest 
payments on loans. 
Public contracts for the purchase of supplies and services for the production of air 
navigation services are covered in the Community by Directives 93/36/EEC and 
93/50/EEC, respectively, when the contracting party is the State; "or by Directive 93/38 
when it is an agency enjoying exclusive or special rights. In all cases, the technical 
specifications applicable to the contracts must comply with those laid down in 
Directive 93/65/EEC. 
All in all, a suitable legal framework for ensuring transparency and normal competitive 
functioning in the award of contracts already seems to exist throughout Europe. 
Nevertheless, there is evidence of de facto partitioning of certain markets which is 
attributable, it would appear, to insufficient efforts to achieve standardisation in this sector. 
Comment : there is clearly a lack of standardisation in this area, which hinders the 
development of a free market for ATM equipment and services. 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055ann.96/EN 20 
h<* 
While investors in the sector do not experience any major difficulties in obtaining financing, 
given the guarantees they are able to offer and the procedures for recovering costs, such 
financing is nevertheless expensive. 
In point of fact, the interest burden included in the costs appears particularly heavy, which 
would seem to point to excessive borrowing for the financing of infrastructures, and hence 
insufficient own funds and insufficient reliance on self-financing. 
Joint-venture partnerships between the public and private sectors should therefore be 
encouraged with a view to creating a more rational financial environment for the provision 
of air navigation services. 
4.2.3. Cooperation/competition 
Up to now the position has been that the provision of air navigation services constitutes a 
natural monopoly because, first, given the methods employed it is not possible for the same 
air space to be controlled by two different controllers; and, secondly, the related 
communication, navigation and surveillance services are also, by and large, provided by the 
same control service providers. 
Against this background, the search for optimum economic efficiency should rely in a first 
instance on the promotion of international cooperation in order to gain advantage from every 
possible economy of scale: joint use of equipment (notably in the case" of communications, 
navigation and surveillance); awarding combined contracts for supplies and services; 
establishing joint control centres, etc. To this end, the development of initiatives such as 
CEATS - the Nordic initiative - and numerous bilateral or multilateral cooperation 
agreements are particularly welcome and should be encouraged. 
Nevertheless, in the longer run the quest for economic efficiency should also focus on the 
possibility of creating a more competitive environment which could stimulate still further 
cost reductions. 
Indeed, the development of modern communication and navigation technologies, notably 
through the use of satellites, opens up the prospect of the emergence of a certain degree of 
competition in the provision of communication, navigation and surveillance services. 
Private communications networks, which already enable passengers on board aircraft to call 
up people on the ground, could thus provide an alternative to the aeronautical mobile service 
provided they can comply with the levels of safety, reliability, availability and efficiency 
required for ATM. These same networks, linked to sufficiently accurate navigation 
facilities, could also offer an alternative (ADS8) to radar surveillance. 
Automated Dependant Surveillance 
Version of 5 3 96- 055ann.96/EN 21 
A> 
As for navigation facilities, both today's inertial navigation systems and the satellite 
navigation techniques of the near future also offer competitive alternatives to the 
navigational aids networks owned by the control service providers, if they can be certified 
as sole means navigational aids. 
Apart from adequate economic viability, the development of these technical alternatives into 
competitive services also presupposes the opening-up of the market in terms of developing 
a set of neutral standards and certification procedures to enable potential new service 
providers to develop and market alternative services. 
Comment : separating regulatory/certification functions from operational ones would 
certainly facilitate new service providers to enter the market. 
As for the ATC services themselves as well as any other service which should continue to 
be provided on a monopoly bais, it would appear legitimate to apply to these services the 
rules normally used to control monopolies and to avoid abuses of dominant position. In 
accordance with the Treaty, it is a matter for the States concerned, under Community 
control, to fulfil this economic regulatory role in the framework of their traditions and their 
policies on the provision of public utility services. This could result in certain States opting 
for fixed-term concession formulas, thus developing another form of competition among 
different service providers, whether public or private, as is already the case with regard to 
the provision of control services at certain UK airports. 
4.3. Development of methods of economic analysis 
As seen earlier, there is a price to be paid for the development of capacity and the reduction 
of inefficiencies, and the economic viability of certain technical options cannot be 
guaranteed in advance. 
As seems to be the case with most current equipment plans and investment decisions in the 
field of ATM, the CIP is based on purely operational considerations. Little is known of the 
costs of implementing it; and the improvements that may be expected as a result have not 
been quantified. 
There is a risk that this shortcoming will have even more serious consequences when it 
comes to choosing new concepts or deciding on the implementation of new technologies. 
This has led the aeronautical community, under pressure from the users, to consider setting 
up economic indicators and cost-benefit analysis tools designed to rationalize the options. 
This is a difficult exercise, and the degree of complexity involved depends on the 
geographical scale on which it is conducted as well as the technical nature of the projects 
under consideration. The same factors also affect the validity of the exercise, because of the 
interdependence of the various service providers, and the significant degree of interplay 
between the various elements making up the air traffic control system. 
Version of 5 3 96 • 055ann.96/EN 22 
L,% 
While analysis at local or national level can be envisaged in the case of projects of limited 
scope (notably with a view to assessing their financial viability), the correct determination 
of the economic viability of the majority of projects covered by the CIP calls for analysis 
on a European scale. 
Moreover, simply carrying out such an analysis requires an ability to assess correctly the 
costs and benefits, and this is no simple matter in the case of a "product" that does not 
correspond to goods or services offered for sale at a specific price. 
As far as costs are concerned, it will therefore be necessary to pay particular attention to 
defining the effects on the level of charges of the measures and investment planned, in order 
to quantify their impact. 
In the case of benefits, while conventional methods can be used to assess the results as far 
as the community is concerned, especially in the area of safety, it will be necessary to 
develop new indicators that are relevant to this particular sector. Since the essential gains 
from any action must involve the reduction of delays and the satisfaction of demand, these 
indicators must be capable of quantifying, in a neutral and objective way, changes in ATC 
capacity, demand and delays. 
As regards this last indicator, there is a well-known further problem due to the difficulty 
of isolating the causes of delays actually recorded in such a way as to separate those that 
are attributable to ATM from those linked to airport congestion or other operational causes. 
In order to tackle this question more effectively, the creation of a Central Office for Delay 
Analysis (CODA), as envisaged by EUROCONTROL and ECAC, is a necessary 
development. 
Comment : In this area there is a clear lack of decision-making aids. In particular, there 
is a need to : 
- develop mathematical models for quantifying the impact of measures 
contained in the CIP in order to verify how far they will ensure user 
satisfaction in terms of capacity and quality of service to be provided; and 
- conduct appropriate cost-benefit analyses for the optimisation of the 
choices of concept, technology or equipment, on the basis of a method of 
assessment suitably adapted to the ATM sector. This presupposes closer 
cooperation in the exchange of economic and technical data on projects 
as well as operating and processing costs and delay analysis. 
4.4. Cost recovery 
Today, most European States recover their costs through charges. 
These charges are in line with ICAO recommendations, in that they seek to recover only 
the costs incurred for the provision of air navigation services as such, excluding any profits 
or returns on the capital invested, except where loans are involved. Furthermore, they are 
calculated in terms of the distance travelled (i.e. the extent of the service actually provided) 
and the aircraft mass (i.e. its taxable capacity). In the area covered by the Multilateral 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055ann.96/EN 23 
<n1 
Agreement relating to Route Charges, which is operated by the EUROCONTROL Central 
Route Charges Office (CRCO) on behalf of the Contracting States, the distance flown is 
based on a standard route - the Most Frequently Flown Route (MFUR) between two 
airports. These routes are updated annually. Lastly, the charges are imposed on all users 
uniformly without discrimination or variation (although, in certain States, domestic services 
are not charged at the same rate as international services). 
While this pricing policy has been well received and accepted by most users, it nevertheless 
produces many adverse effects : 
as seen in paragraph 4.2.2., it leads to an unfavourable cost structure by encouraging 
borrowing instead of the use of providers' own funds; 
it is not conducive to the promotion of public/private partnerships, since there is no 
return on the capital invested; 
- it is hardly conducive to better cost efficiency, since costs will always be covered; 
it is not conducive to a commercial approach to the provision of air navigation services, 
since the user must pay for the cost of the service whatever its quality, over which, 
moreover, he has no control. This defect is further exacerbated by the MFUR method 
of calculating and redistributing the charge, since a State can receive a fee for flights 
which would have deliberately avoided its airspace, whereas the State which actually 
provided the service will receive nothing; 
it does not allow the pricing policy to be used as a tool for ensuring that better use is 
made of the available ATC capacity. 
In order to alleviate these disadvantages,it should be considered whether, without calling 
into question the basic principles which underlie cost recovery - notably payment by the user 
of the service provided and non-discrimination - more flexibility could be introduced in the 
methods of calculating and redistributing charges. 
Comment : The cost recovery policy should be reformed so that : 
- only the service actually provided is paid for (i. e. abandoning the flat-rate 
method); 
- the fees are fixed in such a way as to include a certain margin of risk, 
whether in losses or profits. This will require safeguards to ensure that 
deficits from one year cannot be carried over for inclusion in the costs of 
subsequent years; and that increases in fees are subject to economic 
controls. 
Thought should also be given to the possible effects on demand of appropriate variation to 
the fees. Consideration of this aspect must, it would appear, form part and parcel of the 
other considerations suggested above with a view to achieving a better balance between 
supply and demand. 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055ann.96/EN 24 
C^O 
5. Optimising the use of available ATC capacity 
As early as the 1970s the aeronautical community had recognised the need to manage air 
traffic demand in order to avoid overloads incompatible with the maintenance of ATC safety 
standards. The objective was essentially to keep on the ground aircraft which would 
otherwise have been in airspace where it would have been impossible to handle them safely 
at the time. A number of national Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) Units were 
created to manage this process. 
The crisis at the end of the 1980s highlighted the strategic importance of ATFM and the 
need to carry it out on a European scale in order to benefit from an overall view and 
make efficient use of ATC capacity. This resulted in the agreement to create the Central 
Flow Management Unit (CFMU) managed by EUROCONTROL and operating on behalf 
of all 33 States of ECAC - that is, most countries in Europe. 
ATFM has become an essential aspect of ATM because it is economically unjustifiable to 
provide ATC capacity at a level to cope with the highest traffic peaks. It is therefore 
necessary to live with an acceptable level of undercapacity. The ATFM mechamsms are 
also needed to deal with crisis situations when capacity is reduced for unplanned reasons 
such as strikes, equipment failures, airspace closure, etc. 
In its Communication on Congestion and Crises in ATM, the Commission has described in 
detail the mechamsms used to manage air traffic flows in Europe. 
These mechamsms depend mainly on voluntary action and the goodwill of those 
involved. The latter consider that the mechamsms are, in general, satisfactory; and have 
great hopes that the full implementation of the CFMU will improve their operation and 
efficiency. 
The Commission has nevertheless concluded that it would be useful to consider whether 
introducing a minimum degree of obligation, or indeed incentive, to promote further 
co-operation depending on the situation, could strengthen and accelerate that improvement; 
and suggested the following areas for further action. 
5.1. Planning 
The main weakness of the existing planning mechamsms for ATFM is the lack of 
certainty. Whilst goodwill is not in question, the insistence of each participant on retaining 
as much flexibility as possible hinders serious advance planning. The result is uncertainty 
and increased real-time activity as operators try to negotiate improved slots or alternative 
routes. 
Changing this situation would involve all participants, and would require great efforts to 
better evaluate and balance demand and capacity through improved co-operative 
mechanisms. 
Version of 5.3.% - 055ann.96/EN 25 
?/ 
5.2. Capacity 
It would be desirable to develop a standard method and analysis tools for determining ATC 
sector capacity, and to establish procedures for common capacity planning. The results of 
such planning should be binding - except in conditions of force majeur - and should be used 
by airspace users and airports to better plan and organise their own activities. 
This work should be co-ordinated by the CFMU, which could indeed be given sufficient 
authority to take decisive actions. 
5.3. Demand 
If it is recognised that aircraft operators must have the flexibility to meet market 
requirements, it is also accepted that a minimum of realism and self control should 
be introduced in the planning of their activities if passengers are to receive the service that 
they deserve. 
To achieve this goal, planning by both airspace users and airports should give more 
consideration to ATC restrictions. This would require that they are allowed, consistent with 
anti-trust law, to meet and co-ordinate in order to make better use of the available capacity. 
Pressure to co-operate in the process might be applied by requiring airports and aircraft 
operators to publish puncmality figures so that passengers could see which are planning 
realistically and which are not. 
A detailed analysis of the possibility of integrating airport slot allocation mechanisms and 
the air traffic flow management process should be carried out. 
5.4. Priority rules 
The underlying priority principle in ATFM is the "first come - first served" queue. It 
would be useful to consider for each phase of ATFM operations what priority rules would 
lead to the most efficient use of the available capacity and what compromises might 
be necessary in order to make such rules acceptable to all concerned. 
In so doing, consideration should also be given to the need for the CFMU to be provided 
with a proper legal basis for its work. This must give authority to its decisions whilst at 
the same time defining the framework within which it is empowered to act. 
5.5. Management of crisis situations. 
Although it is accepted that the mechamsm put into place by EUROCONTROL should be 
left to demonstrate its effectiveness, it would also benefit from additional political support. 
The examination of priority rules referred to above should also include the consideration of 
special rules which might be invoked in crisis situations. These would have to be supported 
by a decision making mechamsm for authorising the CFMU to apply the modified rule in 
any given circumstances. 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055ann.96/EN 26 
^ 
It would be useful for planning purposes to establish a common standard of minimum 
service levels to be provided in case of industrial action, particularly if the standard was 
defined in such a way as to limit the interference to international overflying traffic. 
The difficulty of obtaining agreement between Unions and Management in this area is not 
underestimated, but it is considered that the potential benefits are such as to make the effort 
worthwhile. 
Comment : In its Communication on congestion and crisis the Commission concluded 
that a number of actions were needed in this area, but reserved its position 
on the most appropriate institutional arrangements to manage air traffic 
flows. 
It is nevertheless clear, from the analysis developed in the Commission's 
Communication, that Europe needs an appropriate body, based on the 
CFMU, empowered with enough means and authority to plan air traffic 
flows, predetermine ATC capacities to be provided and, if required, allocate 
available capacity according to rules established in advance. 
Version of 5.3.96 - 055ann.96/EN 27 
Appendix I 
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL PRACTICE 
Air traffic control is a service provided to airspace users, with the objective of keeping 
them a safe distance apart. 
In sectors with heavy public air traffic, this service is a sine qua non for the development 
of air transport. In this respect, it is very different from other traffic management 
services which are optional (apart from in certain shipping lanes) and are designed, above 
all, to optimize traffic flow or fleet management. 
After the first mid-air collision (in Vienna in 1910), there was a clearly perceived need 
for rules on air traffic so that aircraft would apply common rules to avoid one another. 
With the advent of blind flight and of ever faster aircraft, these were no longer enough 
and pilots could no longer prevent mid-air collisions on their own. They then had to turn 
to outside help, from air traffic controllers. 
Of course, the sky seems vast and empty. But according to a smdy in the USA, without 
air traffic control the risk of mid-air collisions in densely crowed airspace, such as over 
Western Europe, would be 100 times higher. In other words, the probability of an 
accident would be intolerable. 
What is controlled? 
Virtually all aircraft carrying members of the public and operating in conditions making 
visual flight impossible need an ATC service. To achieve this, the aircraft must be 
equipped for instrument flight, with an indication of their altitude and position and the 
possibility of establishing radio contact with the control authorities at any time. 
Similarly, the crew must hold IFR (instrument flight rules) qualifications. Finally, for 
each flight users must lodge a flight plan informing the control authorities of their 
intentions (route, flight levels, departure and arrival times, time of passing certain 
landmarks, location devices, survival kit, etc.). This is a sort of contract which must be 
submitted to all the air traffic authorities which need to know of the flight. 
Military aircraft are also monitored, despite their very different performance and roles. 
They fly very high or very low and perform interception operations, provide support for 
troops on the ground or carry out bombing hussions. In order to do so, they must have 
training grounds, which they cannot share, with other types of traffic for safety reasons. 
They interfere with general air traffic only when they fly between their bases and these 
restricted areas. Coordination is therefore needed to ensure flight safety. In most 
countries, military flights are controlled by military controllers who provide the requisite 
coordination with their colleagues in the civil sector. Some countries with very heavy 
055appl.96 1 
<56 
055appl.96 
civil and military air traffic have preferred to entrust one and the same control body with 
this phase of military flights too, as in Germany and the USA. 
Where 
Wherever the nature of the flights (instrument flights, commercial flights, high-speed 
flights, etc.) and traffic density dictate. Accordingly, in Western Europe all the upper 
airspace (over 6 000 m) is controlled, plus the airways (rectangular corridors 18 km wide 
and at an altitude of between 1 500 m and 6 000 m protecting an air route in the lower 
airspace), terminal control areas in the vicinity of airports containing standard take-off and 
landing paths between the runways and the air routes (between 900 m altitude or 300 m 
above ground level and a sufficient altitude to allow the necessary operations) and airport 
control areas linking the terminal control areas to the ground around major airports. No 
control service is provided outside these areas, particularly close to the ground, where the 
aircraft which need ATC services rarely fly, leaving this space free for light aircraft. The 
same applies outside the airways, since in Europe this space is often occupied by military 
areas reserved for operational training for the armed forces. 
Generally, ATC services are provided for aircraft following predetermined routes, i.e. on 
the network of airways which cross the airspace. Consequently, aircraft are not free to 
take the shortest route, but must follow these paths. It is generally acknowledged that in 
Europe this adds, on average, 10% to the distances flown. However, it seems difficult 
to overcome this constraint with the current control technology, since air traffic 
controllers need to position their traffic on such routes in order to do their job. 
In regions with less dense traffic, there are vast uncontrolled areas where users are 
nevertheless provided with a flight information service (weather reports, traffic in the 
vicinity, distress alert). 
How? 
Air traffic control consists of keeping aircraft a safe distance apart, based on a knowledge 
of the position of the aircraft in a r'v n sector. Consequently, the separation between 
aircraft will depend on the precision with which the position of the aircraft is known, 
which, in turn, depends on the instruments used to determine the position and speed of 
the aircraft en route or approaching. In accordance with the precision of the altimeters, 
the standard vertical separation is 300 m up to an altitude of 9 000 m and 600 m above 
that. The horizontal separation can vary between 225 km in the case of aircraft on the 
same route if their position is known only from their own reports (procedural control) and 
5.5 km in the case of aircraft approaching under radar control. The separation between 
aircraft en route under radar control is 9 km, although this must be increased where the 
performance of the radar equipment is inadequate, as it still is in certain parts of Europe. 
If two aircraft come closer together than the standard separation, this is known as an "air 
miss". Pilots and air traffic controllers must report such incidents. Analysis of air misses 
gives an idea of the safety standards provided by the system and allows the requisite 
corrective measures. In some ATC centres this is backed up by automatic conflict 
detection methods, where the controllers are assisted by computer. 
055appl.96 2 
055appl.96 
To perform this task, all aircraft in a given control sector are placed under the 
responsibility of an air movements team (one principal controller and two assistants) who 
must take control of any possible interference between aircraft. Taking account of the 
pressure of work which this entails and of the control aids available today, it is 
universally accepted that not more than 15 to 20 aircraft may be in the same sector at the 
same time, depending on the complexity of the traffic handled (number of air route 
crossings, configuration of the landing/take-off paths, transfer to and from sectors 
alongside, above or below, etc.). Airspace capacity therefore depends on the number of 
sectors into which the airspace can be divided. However, there is a limit since if the 
sectors are too small the aircraft will not stay in them long enough for potential conflicts 
to be detected and resolved before they arise. At the same time, the workload for 
negotiating transfers from one sector to the next will be heavier and the sectors' unit 
capacity lower. A compromise must therefore be struck between the size and number of 
sectors. This is what determines airspace capacity. 
The sectors are brought together under control centres, which provide a means of 
combining them in line with variations in demand and of adapting supply to demand. 
Today, there are 42 encroûte control centres in Western Europe to control the upper 
airspace, air routes and terminal control areas. In the USA, 21 en-route control centres, 
backed up by 189 terminal radar control (TRACON) facilities, handle six times as much 
traffic. 
To avoid overloading the sectors, and the potential consequences for flight safety, air 
traffic flow management (ATFM) mechamsms have gradually been developed to detect 
any such risks of congestion in advance and to ground any aircraft which would have had 
to fly in a saturated sector. The development of these mechanisms and their growing use 
in air traffic management were described in the Commission communication on 
congestion and crisis in air traffic (COM(95)318 final of 5 July 1995). 
By whom? 
The air traffic controllers are responsible for maintaining the separations. In order to do 
so, they must form a mental image of the situation in their sector at any time in order to 
detect potential conflicts, devise solutions and give the pilots the necessary instructions: 
change flight level, slow down/accelerate, wait, change flight path, etc. To help them in 
their work, air traffic controllers use small strips of paper, each representing one aircraft 
and giving details of the flights. These are set out on a console representing their relative 
positions. Virtually everywhere in Europe ATC controllers also have a radar image 
which gives them another two-dimensional picture of air traffic. They communicate by 
radio with the aircraft and by telephone with the other controllers with whom they must 
coordinate transfers. 
Air traffic controllers perform a complex task which is more like an art than a traditional 
repetitive job. It requires a special predisposition and a very high level of training. 
These features combined with the fact that the slightest lapse has immediate consequences 
for the safety of hundreds of passengers mark this out as a clearly distinct profession with 
its own rites and scales of values. 
055appl.96 3 
055appl.96 
Almost everywhere the controllers and the staff responsible for the equipment (electronics 
engineers) and for various operational tasks (particularly flight plan processing) are 
employed by the national administrations or State-owned private agencies. This State 
involvement is due to the Chicago Convention which makes the States responsible for 
safety in their airspace. But it is also attributable to the heavy civil and criminal liability 
associated with this activity. 
Virtually throughout the world ATC services are funded by charges levied on the direct 
users. One notable exception is the USA where all expenditure on civil aviation safety 
is funded from taxes and a charge levied on the end users, i.e. air passengers. 
With what? 
As mentioned earlier, air traffic control requires special equipment. 
First, means of communication between the ground and the aircraft are needed to transmit 
messages about the aircraft's position and ATC instructions. The ATC authorities have 
established a private mobile air-to-ground communications service, principally in the VHF 
(Very High Frequency) band, but also in the HF (High Frequency) band for long-range 
communications. Today there are also plans to use satellite communications. 
Ground-to-ground links are also needed to transmit flight plans and allow coordination 
between different controllers. Another private network has been set up for this purpose, 
using subsystems leased from the telecommunications operators to provide a fixed service 
linking all ATC centres, airports and main users. 
Navigational aids are also needed so that pilots know the aircraft's position at all times 
and can inform the ATC authorities when necessary. These can take the form of 
stand-alone on-board equipment, such as inertial guidance systems and Doppler radar, or 
of navigational aids on the ground using different frequency ranges, depending on the 
ranges to be covered, to transmit signals from which aircraft can calculate their position: 
VHF omnidirectional radio range stations (VOR), distance measuring equipment (DME), 
non-directional beacons (NDB), instrument landing systems (ILS), the LORAN and 
OMEGA long-range navigation systems and, increasingly coming into consideration, the 
GPS and GLONASS satellite systems. Consequently, to provide the navigation service, 
the air traffic authorities have been setting up networks of navigational aids, some denser 
than others. 
Air traffic controllers also need to know the position of aircraft under their responsibility 
as well as possible. The more precise and frequently updated this information, the more 
the controller can reduce the separation. For this reason, position reports from aircraft 
have been replaced by a stand-alone radar system which gives a comprehensive picture 
updated after each turn of the antenna (every five to ten seconds). There are different 
types of radar, depending on the phase of the flight. The latest radar technology can 
identify the position, altitude and call sign of aircraft. Soon it will be possible to use 
these radar waves to transmit other data between the ground and the air (S mode radar). 
055appl.96 
S"? 
055appl.96 
At the same time satellite technology is opening up the possibility of developing a rival 
on-board Automated Dependent Surveillance (ADS) system, which would automatically 
transmit the aircraft's position to the ground at all times. 
All the information and resources required by air traffic controllers are brought together 
at the control consoles. Telephones, microphones, video screens, strip boards, etc. are all 
found there in the most ergonomie, interactive configuration possible in order to lighten 
the air traffic controllers' workload and enable them to handle more aircraft at the same 
time. To achieve this, computers have been introduced en masse in control centres. To 
date, however, their role has remained limited to processing and displaying information. 
In the most modern centres, they can also alert controllers a few minutes before a 
collision risk. But they are not yet capable of proposing a strategy for resolving such 
conflicts. 
Within which instimtional framework? 
According to the Chicago Convention adopted at the end of 1944 to lay the basis for a 
global system of international air transport and its basic principle that States have full 
sovereignty over their own airspace, it is their responsibility to provide air traffic services 
and to mobilize the necessary resources for this purpose. 
At the same time, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) was set up to 
define and adopt the common rules needed to make the system interoperable so that any 
one aircraft could travel anywhere in the world. This organization is also responsible for 
ensuring that the services correspond as closely as possible to the needs of the users. It 
may, consequently, give certain States responsibility for supplying such services to aircraft 
crossing international waters. 
It is nevertheless a relatively flexible framework, within which it is even possible to 
notify differences from the common standards, while the undertakings given in connection 
with the satisfaction of users' needs are not legally binding. 
Each State is free to decide the level of service to be provided and the means to be 
employed for this purpose, with the result that the technology used and the results 
achieved vary tremendously from one country to another, making the overall system less 
efficient than it should be. 
To overcome this problem, if only in part, groups of States have felt the need to 
cooperate more closely at regional level and, in some cases, to consider actually 
integrating their national services. It is the reason why EUROCONTROL was up in 1960 
by an international convention, to provide air traffic control for the entire upper airspace 
of its Member States. This, however, represented too great a transfer of sovereignty for 
some of the first Member States: even before the Convention entered into force, France 
and the United Kingdom reclaimed control of the whole of their own airspace, and 
Germany later largely followed suit. Thus EUROCONTROL today, via its control centre 
at Maastricht, provides air traffic control only for the airspace above the Benelux 
countries and Northern Germany - and then only within the framework of specific 
agreements between the organization and each of the States concerned. 
055appl.96 
6° 
055appl.96 
By way of compensation, EUROCONTROL was given a greater coordinating role in 
planning and research, and its Convention was supplemented by a multilateral agreement 
under which it was given responsibility for collecting route charges.* 
In parallel with these developments, and in view of the lessons learned from over-
ambitious attempts at integration, the ICAO reinforced the existing mechanisms for 
cooperation at regional level by setting up a more permanent structure than the regional 
meetings. This was the EANPG,1 which was able to meet once or twice a year if need 
be and to work more or less continuously on updating and monitoring the Regional Air 
Navigation Plan. 
Today, EUROCONTROL has 19 Member States (the States of the European Union except Finland, Italy and Spain, plus 
Cyprus, Hungary, Malta, Norway, Slovenia, Switzerland and Turkey). The multilateral agreement on route charges covers 
these same countries plus Spain. 
European Air Navigation Planning Group. 
055appl.96 6 
Appendix 2 
ATM : A QUANTITATIVE DESCRIPTION. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
1.1. Scope of the annex 
This annex looks at the technical and operational aspects of the current Air Traffic 
Management (ATM) system in Europe, covering all the national organisations that 
provide air traffic services (ATS) to airspace users (aircraft operators), in accordance 
with suitable rules and standards, for the safe, orderly and efficient movement of 
aircraft in the air and on the ground. 
ATS are divided into specific services : 
- Air Traffic Control Service (ATC) ; it aims at preventing collisions between 
aircraft or between aircraft and obstructions on the manoeuvring area ; and at 
expediting and maintaining an orderly flow of air traffic ; 
- Flight Information Service (FIS) ; it provides advice and information useful for 
the safe and efficient conduct of flights ; 
- Alerting Service ; it notifies appropriate organisations regarding aircraft in need 
of search and rescue ; and assist such organisation. 
Annex 1 explained that ATC : 
- are the services provided by Air Traffic Control Centers to control the movements 
of aircraft both on the ground and in the air by the cpntinuous tracking and 
coordination of moving aircraft to keep abreast of their respective positions in 
order to ensure safe separation and passage between airports; 
- are delivered to airspace users in three different ways: at the airport itself, and 
during landing and take-off (airport control); within the terminal airspace 
surrounding an airport (approach control); and in the airspace between two 
terminal areas (en-route control); 
- are carried out by air traffic controllers following specific procedures with the 
help of facilities and equipment capable of supporting this work. 
This Annex concentrates primarily on the en-route aspect of European air traffic 
management, and ATC most of all, aiming to describe it in quantitative terms to 
complement the more qualitative description in Annex 1. 
055app2.96 1 
62, 
1.2. Methodological approach 
The Annex first describes the way in which air traffic services are provided in 
Western Europe (supply analysis); and then looks at precisely how users need these 
services (demand analysis). Finally, it reviews the interaction between supply and 
demand, and considers the quality of service that results. Wherever possible this 
description is supported by figures, to illustrate both trends over past years and 
correlations between variables; and references to recent studies. 
With this in mind, the Annex consists of three chapters: 
- Chapter 1 looks at each of the three components of the ATM system, airspace, 
technical facilities and staff; _ 
- Chapter 2 analyses the requirements of airspace users; 
- Chapter 3 looks at the acmal performance of the system as it works in practice in 
terms of matching the demand for, and the supply of, Air Traffic Services. 
Air traffic management consists of three main activities. Two of these concern the 
supply of services (airspace management and air traffic control). And, thirdly, flow 
management aims to match supply to demand: 
- airspace management means the design of the structures (in the form of sectors 
and routes) that enable airspace to be used according to specific procedures; 
- air traffic control involves the technological and human resources necessary for 
the supervision of aircraft; 
- air traffic flow management improves the use of airspace by identifying and 
resolving capacity problems when demand exceeds supply. 
Finally, it should be borne in mind throughout that this survey looks at airspace 
management in Europe generally, rather than at the area covered by the EU. 
2.. HOW EUROPEAN AIR TRAFFIC SERVICES ARE PROVIDED 
2.1. The structure of air traffic management 
The planning and operation of Air Traffic Management in Europe is carried out on 
a national basis, through the public sector, with varying degrees of coordination via 
organisations such as EUROCONTROL (European Organisation for the Safety of the 
Air Navigation), ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation - European region) 
and the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC). 
Three factors explain why Air Traffic Services are undertaken on a national basis and 
by public sector bodies: 
055app2.96 2 
63 
- the birth of air traffic control during World War II as a means of identifying and 
locating military aircraft. Its subsequent extension to civilian air services was 
influenced by the original purpose of securing the defence of national airspace 
against hostile aircraft; 
- the Chicago Convention of 1944, which enshrined the principle of national control 
over the use of sovereign airspace ; 
- the perceived importance of such services, together with airlines' own services, 
as vital assets influencing tfye development of national economies. 
This national approach to ATC in Europe has, as a result, led to the development of 
an institutional and organisational strucmre where responsibility for the provisiorrof 
Air Traffic Services tends to be shared between three different bodies within national 
administrations: 
- the government level, with the Ministry of Transport or Communications 
concerned with policy decisions; 
- the management level, for which responsibility lies with the Civil Aviation 
Administration or Authority (CAA); 
- the operational level, where the actual provision of ATC services is usually the 
responsibility of Air Navigation Services (ANS) organisations. 
Detailed arrangements may vary between different countries - for instance, the ANS 
organisation may itself be a part of the CAA - but, generally, the three levels will 
follow this pattern: 
- the government level will be concerned with supervision of the system overall, 
and future investment policies; 
- the management level will be responsible for ensuring the integrity of safety, 
setting standards , defining strategies and future planning; 
- the operational level will provide the services to airspace users, develop the 
planning of future service provision and organise revenue collection in the form 
of fees paid by airspace users for Air Traffic Services. 
The need for an international approach to aviation matters led to the setting up of 
various organisations for the development and application of common regulations and 
operating procedures. ICAO was formed in 1944 as an international body for the 
purpose of developing international standards and conventions for International Civil 
Aviation and Air Traffic Control, in conjunction with industry bodies and national 
administrations. Within Europe, ECAC was established in 1955 as an inter­
governmental organisation, supervised at Ministerial level, to oversee the European 
system and propose and coordinate improvements in air transport. In the 1960s 
another inter-governmental organisation, EUROCONTROL, was formed which was 
originally intended to develop means of providing Upper Airspace Control Services 
across all its Member States on a unified basis. In practice this was only achieved 
over a relatively limited area - Benelux and North Germany. EUROCONTROL's 
055app2.96 3 
£4 
mandate was later extended to include the collection of route charges, the 
development of standards, research and advisory services and the management of 
air traffic flows at a European level. 
The respective roles and responsibilities of the various national and international 
bodies in terms of the three levels of ATC management functions - government, 
management and operations - are summarised in the following table: 
Table 2.1. - Current roles and responsibilities 
Level 
-Role 
Governing 
- Supervision of the system 
- Investment policy 
- Standards setting 
Managing 
- Safety oversight 
- Investment planning 
Operating 
- Services provision 
- Services planning 
- Revenue collection ENTITY 
National 
Min 
• 
• 
• CAA 
• 
• 
• ANS 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• International 
ECAC |ICAO 
• 
• 
• . 
• 
• Eur 
• 
• 
•: i =-r-f 
Legend: 
• responsible 
• advisor 
Min = Ministry 
Eur = EUROCONTROL 
Eurocontrol has responsability for service provision and service planning for the Maastricht Centre and the Central Flow 
Management Unit (CFMU) ; and an advisory role in other flields. 
055app2.96 
*r 
2.2. The complexity of airspace structure 
Basic division of airspace is into : 
- controlled airspace, and/or 
- uncontrolled airspace. 
By international agreement, airspace structures are set up in seven different airspace 
control classes around fixed air routes and control zones. The service provided to 
aircrafts flying on instruments (IFR) and to aircraft flying visually (VFR), reflects 
the requirements of airspace users and the density of air traffic. 
Air Space Management consists of two separate activities: 
- Ground-based controllers control aircraft within the "sectors" of airspace for 
which they are responsible. These sectors make up airspace structure: 
- aircraft are piloted by their crews along "airways" which form the airspace 
network. 
The current strucmre of European airspace strucmre is determined, in the first place, 
by the boundaries of each country's airspace. Other determining factors are 
operational and technical, mainly to do with the performance of communications and 
navigation aids. At operating level, Air Traffic Services infrastructure is managed in 
the first place by Area Control Centres (ACCs), each of which is responsible for 
supervising the use of the airspace within a territorial area (Flight Information Region 
(FIR)). The airspace within each FIR is, in turn, divided into sectors in ways that 
best suit the process of controlling aircraft within it.. A sector is notionally the 
volume of airspace that can be controlled by a single controller; but in practice some 
sectors are amalgamated with others where this makes sense in terms of traffic loads. 
As well as being separated horizontally, airspace is divided vertically, generally 
being divided into Upper and Lower Airspace at a specified altitude level: 
- below this level is the Flight Information Region (FIR), where flights are 
controlled in the climb and descent phases; 
- above this level is the Upper Information Region (UIR), where flights are 
controlled at their cruising altitude. 
Most FIRs and UIRs share the same ACC but, in some cases, countries have 
established separate Upper Air Centres (UAC). 
Two countries, the UK and Portugal, operate Oceanic Area Control Centres (OACC) 
to provide air traffic control over the eastern part of the North Atlantic. 
Areas around principal airports may need separate systems for co-ordinating flights 
to control arriving and departing flights. 
The current strucmre of European airspace is summarised in table 2.2. For each 
country it shows: 
055app2.96 5 
66 
- the area covered by the Flight Information Region; 
- the flight level chosen as the boundary between the FIR and the UIR; 
- the maximum number of 'single* sectors that can be operated simultaneously by 
each ACC. 
Table 2.2. - Airspace structure in 1995 
Country 
Austria 
Belgium 
Denmark 
Finland 
France 
Germany 
Greece 
Ireland 
Italy 
Luxembourg 
Netherlands 
Portugal 
Spain 
Sweden 
United Kingdom 
Maastricht VAC Surface FIR 
(km2) 
84000 
30500 
n.a. 
n.a. 
768600 
297600 
277200 
168000 
n.a. 
-
34000 
276000 
621875 
n.a. 
575000 
n.a. Separation 
FTR/VIR 
FL245 
FL 195 
FL245 
FL245 
FL 195 
FL 245 
FL245 
FL245 
FL 245 
FL245 
FL 195 
FL245 
FL245 
FL245 
FL245 
-No of ATC 
Units 
ACC ; VAC 
1 i -
1 î -
1 ! -
2 î -
61 ! -
61 ! 1 
31 ! -
2 ! -
4 ! -
i 
1 î -
1 î -
5l ! -
3 ! -
3 \ -
- ! i No of Sectors 
En-route \ APP 
14 ! 6 
4 ! 2 
9 1 3 
4 ! -/ 
74 î 6 
61 i 12 
9 ! 2 
9 ! 3 
28 \ 92 
i 
6 ! 3 
5 ! 2 
32 ! 16 
19 ; 8 
41 1 16 
7 ! -
1 - with the addition of one separate Approach Units 
2 - 5 sectors play en-route + APP role 
Source: EUROCONTROL - CIP - Stams Report 1995 
055app2.96 6 
2.3. The configuration of the airspace network 
The European airspace structure consists of a network of fixed routes. These routes 
were originally aligned according to the siting of navigational aids - usually close to 
airports. This means that routes normally follow dog-leg paths, and cross one another 
frequently at points where it is particularly important to avoid conflicts. (This pattern 
may vary, but only to a degree when airspace normally reserved for military use 
becomes temporarily available for civil use, allowing some more direct routeing.) 
Because the route network is defined in two dimensions only, aircraft flying along 
the same route on conflicting courses are assigned different flight levels. Flight levels 
are spaced 1000 feet apart up to FL 290 (2900 feet), above which the spacing is 2000 
feet. Even-numbered flight levels above FL 300 are not, therefore, used at present. 
Table 2.1. gives an indication of the present use of flight levels based on airlines' 
requests in July 1990 (EUROCONTROL figures) ; experimental studies have 
demonstrated that the best cruise level for a flight of 500 NM in terms of fuel 
consumption is FL 350. It is estimated that about 10% of flights in Europe are not 
flown at their optimal cruising height because of ATC restrictions. 
Figure 2.1. - Flight levels requested by airlines 
10 15 
Percentage of total flights 20 25 
Source : EUROCONTROL 
055app2.96 7 
2.4. Network effectiveness 
Ideally, the route between two airports should be set in order to minimise the length 
of a flight in terms of time and distance, so that it can be flown on the most direct 
route using the most efficient vertical profile. In practice, however, there are various 
constraints: 
a) route design has to take account of the need to avoid areas of potential conflict 
and of high traffic load; and to the need to sequence arrival traffic and segregate 
arrival and departure flows ; —~ 
b) national borders have the effect of fragmenting available airspace; 
c) military operations restrict the use of airspace; 
d) the present layout of navigationals aids, particularly the siting of radio beacons, 
determines routes; 
e) in some cases, en-route paths will clash with airport approach "paths; and 
f) weather and environmental restrictions can always play a part. 
Some of these factors are interdependent (for instance, radar stations are sited to 
cover national airspace) with the result that the individual effect of each on the 
network layout cannot be easily isolated. Studies have been carried out by 
EUROCONTROL to identify indicators which compare the lengths of the most direct 
paths to those of the paths acmally followed. Although these analyses provide only 
rough measures of network effectiveness they suggest that all these factors, except 
weather, contribute to the problem. The studies, the results of which are summarised 
in table 2.3., are qualified as follows: 
. they cover a varied sample of flights, using airport pairs, over a specific period. 
It is difficult, therefore, to extrapolate the results to other times of the year, or to 
flights in Europe generally; 
. they assume that all flights followed the routes most normally flown (according 
to the EUROCONTROL Database). Acmally, the distance acmally flown could 
have varied, if Air Traffic Control had altered the routeing away from these 
"normal" paths. 
The comparison was carried out by: 
. selecting for examination a sample of routes and corresponding flights to examine; 
. evaluating the distance flown according to the most commonly used itinerary, as 
stored in the Database of EUROCONTROL (DBE itinerary); 
055app2.96 8 
01 
. evaluating the distance flown according to the theoretically most direct itinerary 
between terminal areas, which represents the shortest possible routing taking into 
account runway orientation (reference itinerary). 
Because average flight distance of the sample became shorter towards the end of the 
1980s, the influence of route design in terminal areas, as opposed to en-route design, 
became proportionally more important. 
Table 2.3. - Estimation of inefficient routing 
Period 
(m/y) 
7/88 
7/89 
7/90 
9/91 
9/92 
9/93 
, 9/94 Sample 
(n> of flights) 
262,355 
330,040 
441,620 
470,876 
n.a. 
496,269 
504,223 Average flight distance (Nms) 
DBE 
553 
522 
474 
453 
n.a. 
506 
492 Reference 
507 
476 
430 
410 
n.a. 
460 
447 Difference 
(%) 
-9.1 
9.7 
10.2 
10.4 
n.a. 
10.0 
10.1 
source: EUROCONTROL/Division 01 
This suggests that the effect of constraints is to increase flight distances by about 
10%, or around 45 Nms on average. Of this 10%, about 70% take place en route; 
20% on approach to airports and 8% on departure from airport areas. According to 
ECAC's INSTAR study the reasons are: ^ 
- problems arising where en-route routes clash with airport areas (24%); 
- routes having to be designed to avoid dense traffic areas (33%); 
- the need to circumnavigate military airspace (30%); 
- other factors (13%). 
055app2.96 9 
To 
2.5. Technological resources 
The airspace structure and network is greatly influenced by the equipment used to 
support Air Traffic Control services. According to its function, equipment will fall 
into one of three separate "domains": 
- " Communications " includes all technology for transferring information needed for 
navigation, surveillance and ATM. "Ground-air" is distinct from "ground-
ground", but each have separate networks for both speech and data transmission; 
- "Navigation " refers to all equipment that facilitates en-route navigation by aircraft 
along the routes they have to fly; —-
- "Surveillance" means all technologies that enable ground-based ATC controllers 
to keep track of aircraft. The use of radar is now enhanced by the introduction of 
Radar Data Processing Systems (RDPS). 
Communication 
Three means of comunication are now in use at ATC Centres: 
- air/ground voice communications (radio-telephone), 
- ground/ground voice communications (telephone), 
- ground/ground data communications. 
Air/ground voice communications between controller and pilot are currently carried 
out by radio transmission, in HF, VHF and UHF. 
High Frequency radio transmission is the only non-satellite communication system 
which allows direct communication between aircraft and ground beyond the line-of-
sight. This long range communication works through the reflection of the skywave 
from the ionosphere and is currently used within Europe for longhaul trans-oceanic 
flights. Its performance is generally unsatisfactory for reliable communications 
because it is affected by ionospheric conditions. HF is considered to be a redundant 
technology about to be replaced by satellite communication systems. 
VHF is the normal means of air-to-ground communications for ATC purposes for 
civil aircraft. But because VHF is limited to line-of-sight, ground stations must be 
sited so as to ensure that an aircraft will always be in line-of-sight of one of them 
and within a maximum distance depending upon the height of the aircraft. Aircraft 
overflying the European area must therefore communicate with different Centres, 
changing channels frequently. Each station is allocated a frequency and stations need 
a minimum physical separation from one another to avoid antenna interference. 
Within the EU there are about 350 VHF stations serving major airports and ATC 
Centres; but each Centre has developed its own radio communications system more 
or less independently. Although care is taken to ensure sufficient overlap in coverage 
and to prevent interference, technical approaches and solutions may be very different. 
055app2.96 10 
If 
VHF is also used occasionally for air-to-air communications, most countries 
allocating for this purpose. VHF also allows aircrew to monitor all the traffic on a 
particular frequency, which enables them to hear controllers' instructions to other 
aircraft and thereby gain a reasonably full picture of the air traffic in the 
neighbourhood. 
The frequency bank currently allocated to VHF aeronautical mobile communications 
is 118 to 137 MHz with a spacing of 25 kHz. There is an urgent need for additional 
frequencies over and above the 760 currently available, particularly in Central 
Europe. The shortfall is caused in part by poor procedures for operation and co­
ordination. To alleviate the problem it may be necessary to challenge some of the 
present allocations of the VHF band and, if necessary, to reassign them. This would 
improve efficiency but by itself would not solve the problem of congestion. By 1998»-
2000, however, it may be possible to increase the number of channels by reducing 
the channel spacing to 8.33 kHz. 
Another issue arises in times of heavy traffic. The limiting factor on the number of 
aircraft a controller can handle is the communications workload demanded by the 
operational, organisational and procedural requirements for handling the aircraft. 
This is due not to the technical performance of the communications system, nor to 
the lack of channels, nor even to aircraft separation standards. A reduction of the 
workload of the controller will be only achieved by introducing some degree of 
automation in aircraft handling. This will come about with the implementation of a 
datalink system between the aircraft and the ATC system - between the crew and the 
controller. In the longer term, Mode-S represents one of implementing a datalink 
system, which would also reduce the demands on the VHF spectrum. 
UHF communications are similar to the use of the VHF communication band. Their 
only use for ATC in Europe is for military aircraft. 
Ground/ground Voice communications are concerned, in particular, with 
communications between Centres. These communications provide a common network 
for exchanging information using direct speech links. In Europe, however, there is 
no standard network, and a large variety of technically different communication links 
and procedures are already in place at different European ACCs. The need for this 
network will, however, dimmish after the introduction of an automated data link 
network developed to international standards, even if voice communications continue 
to play their part for resolving particular problems. 
ATC voice communications are generally based on private fixed dedicated circuits 
connecting every pair of control centres which need to cooperate. The 
implementation of a Voice Communication Network suitable for ATC purposes 
requires the provision of extensively networked circuits, compatible equipment and 
standard communication procedures. For the time being, however, the basic 
providers of circuits are the national public telephone organisations, and the use of 
extensive link-ups across the network is not a standard feature of public telephone 
systems today. 
A common approach for the implementation of such a network has been developed 
as part of the EATCHIP programme. This system will still be based on international 
point-to-point circuits but all lines, together with the switching system, will be 
055app2.96 11 
operated as a network. 
Ground/ground Data Communications enable information to be exchanged between 
centres, so reducing the volume of routine coordination. This information is to do 
with signals, flight plans, aeronautical and meteorological reports etc. Sharing it 
between different centres requires having proper data exchange links and appropriate 
communications procedures. 
At present, the conventional Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunications Network 
(AFTN) remains the primary source for the acquisition of basic data. This network, 
designed some forty years ago, connects AFTN centres in all European countries. 
Most countries have a centralised system with one communications centre as a hub, 
which alone communicates with other countries' networks. Conventional AFTN links-
comprise teletype systems and manually operated radiotelegraphy channels. Although 
well proven, such links suffer from slow transmission and inadequate data protection. 
Moreover, the particularly poor performance of certain AFTN switching centres 
means that comprehensive new routeing arrangements cannot be set up. As a result, 
some AFTN switches and circuits are heavily overloaded, producing message loss 
and unacceptable transmission delays. For this reason a new, improved data 
interchange architecture was defined by ICAO in the mid 1970s - the Common ICAO 
Data Interchange Network (ODIN). The original specification was subsequently 
modified to take account of the publication of the X25 communication protocol. 
Introducing a CIDIN network would be accompanied by replacing or upgrading old 
AFTN switches with the new CIDIN nodes and increasing the transmission speeds 
of AFTN circuits. So far, the introduction of CIDIN procedures on the ICAO plan 
has already taken place in some European countries (Austria, Denmark, Germany, 
Greece and Spain) and is in hand in others. This should increase the overall data 
signalling rate and switching capacity of the AFTN in the European area. 
There are other ground-to-ground data communication networks for the exchange of 
aeronautical data and of radar data. These networks are used within regions or, at 
most, country-wide. 
One development in communication infrastructure which will greatly improve the 
automatic exchange of flight plans and system coordination data between ACCs is the 
On-Line Data Interchange (OLDI). The verbal exchanges needed for traffic hand­
overs to adjacent centres represent a significant workload for controllers. The 
automation of this process through the use of OLDI links has already produced 
significant improvements. At present, OLDI links have been established on a bilateral 
basis between centres in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Benelux, 
Germany, Austria and Switzerland. These are based on logic links, from a source Air 
Traffic Control computer system to a receiver ATC computer. There is no direct 
relationship between the number of such links and the number of physical circuits 
because relay facilities are provided at some ATC Centres; and because in some 
cases the QLDI application shares the same physical circuits with other facilities. The 
full benefit of this programme will be reached, however, only when all transmission 
systems have been fully harmonised. 
055app2.96 12 
73 
Navigation 
At present, navigation is carried out by means of VOR/DME (VHF Omnidirectional 
Radio Range/Distance Measuring Equipment) or NDB (Non-Directional Radio 
Beacon) facilities. These navaids are radio beacons, operating in VHF or MF and 
emitting a constant signal. The signal, received by equipment on the aircraft, guides 
it in the right direction. The use of these navaids has also contributed to perpetuating 
the existing fixed-route structure, because routes are aligned according to fixed 
nodes, being the points where airway beacons are located on the ground (fixes). Each 
individual radio station provides route coverage more than halfway to the next fix, 
so that coverage always overlaps. Waypoints along a route may be radial 
intersections from other fixes; or DME fixes from stations co-located with the" 
present fix, or the next fix along the route. The current distribution of navaids in the 
European area is shown on a country-by-country basis in table 2.4. 
Table 2.4. - Number of navaid types by country 
Country 
Austria 
Belgium 
Denmark 
Finland 
France 
Germany 
Greece 
Ireland 
Italy 
Luxembourg 
Netherlands 
Norway 
Portugal 
Spain 
Sweden 
United Kingdom 
Switzerland 
TOTALS VOR 
-
1 
6 
7 
38 
22 
4 
-
4 
1 
-
8 
-
9 
22 
5 
7 
134 VOR/DME 
11 
9 
6 
6 
41 
39 
26 
4 
43 
1 
9 
15 
10 
27 
14 
42 
5 
308 DME 
- : 
-
1 
-
l 
11 
l 
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
l 
-
-
15 NDB 
11 
8 
4 
13 
2 
44 
14 
6 
28 
.. -
9 
17, 
6 
28 
9 
26 
6 
231 
Source: ANP EUR 
055app2.96 13 
The present VOR/DME navigation regime is generally considered satisfactory from 
the point of view of performance and reliability. However, they inhibit the further 
development of network design. The trend has been to move away from such station-
oriented systems towards the much wider coverage achieved by satellite navigation 
systems: moving completely to such a system would, of course, remove one of the 
major obstacles to redesigning the European route network. 
Modern navigation airborne computers enable an aircraft to determine its position by 
measuring its distance from two DME ground stations. This two-dimensional 
navigation is accurate to about 0.25 miles and makes it possible to use RNAV with 
current technology. However, legislation allowing RNAV use over continental 
airspace as a sole means has not yet been put in place, standards and regulations haver-
still to be developed and, with RNAV so far used only on a limited basis, controllers 
are not yet sufficiently familiar with it. 
Surveillance 
The use of radar to cover European airspace has enabled controllers to handle an 
ever increasing level of air traffic. Before radars came into general use - and as 
indeed still happens today in areas where radar coverage is deficient or non-existent -
flights were monitored by ATC on the basis of pilots' radio reports. The introduction 
of radar surveillance has given ATC controllers much better information on the 
progress of flights, and hence improved their ability to predict flight paths and detect 
possible conflicts. 
Two types of radar are used in Europe: primary radar (PSR); and secondary radar 
(SSR), the most recent form of which is the monopulse secondary radar (MSSR). 
Primary radar was first developed to monitor military flights. It provides positions 
(in terms of range and bearing) of any target within range by means of passive 
returns obtained by the reflection of radio waves directed onto the target. It therefore 
needs no equipment on the aircraft itself, and is a ground-based system consisting of 
two basic elements: a rotating antenna and a transmitter. Its range is from 60 nm 
(short range category) up to 200 nm (long range category); the pulse repetition 
frequency is from 340 Hz to 1000 Hz; and its accuracy in reporting the range and 
bearing (azimuth) of an aircraft is measured by the following standard deviations: 
0.03 nm for the range and 0.05 * for the azimuth. The quality of surveillance of PSR 
may be affected by fixed echoes and "clutter". 
"Mode A/C" secondary radar,- by contrast, is a system that makes it possible to 
interrogate an aircraft within range and obtain a coded reply containing, as well as 
range and bearing, the identity of the aircraft ("Mode A") and its altitude ("Mode 
C"). In this case the radar system comprises both ground-based and airborne 
equipment. The core elements of the ground-based radar station are the rotating 
antenna, a transmitter/receiver and an extractor. The extractor processes all the 
responses from an aircraft during each scan of the antenna and delivers a digital 
message containing the aircraft's position, identity code and altimde. Conventional 
secondary radar (SSR) and monopulse radar (MSSR) are distinguished by different 
055app2.96 - 14 
1Ï 
techniques used for acquiring this information. 
The airborne element is the transponder, connected to the aircraft antenna. Secondary 
radars have a range of up to 200 nm, and operate on a pulse repetition ranging 
frequency is from 300 to 400 Hz for conventional radars and of 200 Hz for 
monopulse radar. Accuracy is measured by the following standard deviations for 
classical SSR radars: 0.15 nm for range and 0.2* for bearing. Monopulse radars have 
the same accuracy as piimary radars. The quality of surveillance of "classical" SSR 
is limited by problems of interference due to transponder saturation, while monopulse 
radars have brought considerable improvements in eliminating garble, reducing 
interferences and improving accuracy. Secondary radar is the core element of current 
ATC systems in Europe, and the general trend now is to install monopulse systems 
whose performance allows radar separations of 5 nm and less. The performance -of*" 
secondary radars is restricted, however, by limited procedures; techniques for aircraft 
identification that do not allow an individual code to be used; and line-of-sight 
constraints. 
Table 2.5. provides a summary of types and numbers of radars, on a country-by-
country basis. The term "P+S" is used when the ATC is operating both a primary 
radar (PSR) and a secondary radar (SSR). 
Table 2.5. - Number of radar types by country and age 
Country . 
Austria 
Belgium 
Denmark 
Finland 
France Radar 
P+S 
PSR 
P+S 
PSR 
SSR 
MSSR 
P+S 
PSR 
SSR 
MSSR 
PSR 
SSR 
MSSR 
P+S 
MSSR Number of radar station per age (years) 
Total 
6 
1 
2 
2 
1 
1 
6 
5 
1 
1 
2 
7 
3 
10 < 5 
-
-
1 
2 
-
-
-
3 
-
> 6*10 
2 
1 
-
2 
1 
1 
4 
-
1 
-1U20 
1 
1 
1 
-
1 
1 
-
1 
3 
-
4 
->20 
3 
1 
1 
1 
1 
4 
1 
-
-
5 
-
055app2.96 15 
fi 
Country 
Germany 
Greece 
Ireland 
Italy 
Netherlands 
Norway 
Portugal 
Spain 
Sweden 
United Kingdom Radar 
P+S 
PSR 
SSR 
PSR 
SSR 
MSSR 
P+S 
PSR 
MSSR 
P+S 
PSR 
SSR 
P+S 
SSR 
PSR 
SSR 
P+S 
PSR 
SSR 
PSR 
SSR 
MSSR 
P+S 
PSR 
SSR 
MSSR 
P+S 
PSR 
SSR 
MSSR Number of radar station per age (years) 
Total 
21 
2 
2 
9 
9 
9 
2 
1 
5 
6 
1 
1 
2 
10 
14 
3 
8 
5 
1 
2 
10 
3 
6 
3 < 5 
6 
1 
-
-
-
1 
-
1 
2 
6 
2 
2 
-
1 
-
-
-
-
-
1 
1 
3 
-
2 
-
1 6*10 
2 
-
-
-• 
-
-
-
-
-
2 
1 
1 
-
-
1 
1 
1 
-
2 
1 
6 
-
1 
1 
8 
1 
1 lh20 
13 
-
-
-
-
-
1 
-
-
-
1 
1 
-
-
2 
2 
-
-
-
2 
1 
•-
6 
-
2 
1 >20 
-
-
1 
1 
1 
-
1 
-
1 
5 
5 
2 
-
2 
3 
-
1 
-
6 
6 
-
1 
5 
-
2 
5 
1 
Source: EUROCONTROL 
055app2.96 16 
?? 
Radar stations are connected by dedicated telephone to Radar Data Processing 
Systems (RDPSs) in Air Traffic Control Centres. RDPSs convert radar data to 
appear on controllers' screens, tracking each aircraft's current, previous and 
predicted position, altimde, course and speed. A mono-radar tracker processes plots 
from a single radar, whereas a more accurate and reliable multi-radar tracker 
simultaneously processes plots from several stations. RDPSs can warn controllers of 
potential hazards when an aircraft's altimde or proximity to other aircraft seem likely 
to breach separation minima. Hazard detection extrapolates the aircraft's trajectory 
based on track information, but at present this is limited to Short Term Conflict 
Avoidance systems (STCAs). 
Research is taking place into possible improvements of radar data exchange using 
computer networking. With such a network, each ATC centre would no longer-De­
restricted to processing information from a limited number of radar stations since it 
would then be possible to exchange track information between centres. This would 
answer the need for identical radar information and identical radar separations, and 
eliminate problems at border areas. 
There are three main functional deficiencies in Europe's radar network: 
- Radar coverage. The introduction of duplicated SSR coverage - an objective of the 
EATCHIP programme - in the South-East of Europe is proceeding far too slowly. 
On the other hand, in the central area of Europe there are more radars operating 
than are strictly needed (see table 2.6.), as they have been sited principally to 
serve national requirements. Two possible results are technical problems due to 
the high number of radar transmissions in the area; and unnecessary increases in 
the costs of providing ATC services. 
- The disparity of radar separation requirements. Different crteria for radar 
information and aircraft separation result in the need for "stopgap" measures when 
aircraft are handed on from one centre to another. It also means that the capacity 
of a route is dictated by the centre along the route which applies the greatest 
separation standards. 
- The different technical characteristics of systems. These can put severe difficulties 
in the way of achieving interoperability. But even when systems are compatible, 
international sharing of information does not take place as much as it should -
hence the over-provision of radar coverage in the core area. 
055app2.96 17 
7* 
Table 2.6. - Evolution of radar coverage in ECAC area 
Radar Coverage (entire ECAC area) 
No coverage 
Single coverage 
Multiple coverage 
Radar Coverage (continental ECAC 
area) 
No coverage 
Single coverage 
Multiple coverage mo 
66.81% 
10.11% 
23.71% 
36.70% 
17.89% 
45.41% 1991 
66.04%, 
9.50% 
24.47% 
36.32% 
16.72% 
46.95% 1992 
63.14% 
11.16% 
25.70% 
30.68% 
19.97% 
49.35% 1993 
60.29% 
11.59% 
28.12% 
25.55% 
21.01% 
53.44% 
source: EUROCONTROL 
2.6. Human resources 
This section looks at staff engaged in Air Traffic Services, and controllers in 
particular, on a country-by-country basis in terms of their numbers and different 
conditions of work. 
At the request of the Commission, the International Federation of Air Traffic 
Controllers Associations (IFACTA) has carried out a survey of trends in manpower 
numbers, by different functions. Although there are many gaps in the data, the 
information gathered points to the following conclusions: 
- over the last seven years some countries (for example, Belgium, the Netherlands, 
Sweden and the UK) have seen an increase in the number of controllers. The 
average yearly rate of this increase ranges from 4 to 7 percent; 
- for other countries (for example, Denmark, Ireland and Italy) the number of 
controllers has remained stable over the period (and in one case - Finland - it has 
slightly decreased). 
An assessment of manpower requirements was made in 1993, as part of the 
EATCHIP programme, which concluded that there was a shortage of air traffic 
controllers which would last until at least 1997; and that this would have an impact 
055app2.96 18 
J? 
on traffic capacity. Another conclusion was that in some countries the deployment 
of controllers was less than fully effective, due largely to low motivation of staff and 
poor management practices. 
The figures in the table appear to confirm the shortage of trained staff in certain 
areas. This shortage may be due in part to disparities in selecting and training staff, 
which requires considerable resources of time and money. Efforts are under way to 
harmonise aspects of human resources in this field by establishing common 
procedures for selection, training and licensing. 
Differences in social and cultural attitudes are reflected in different working 
conditions, as shown in table 2.8. There are marked differences in standard working 
times, which could explain disparities both in productivity and in salaries. — 
055app2.96 19 
<p 
Table 2.7. - Number of air traffic controllers available 
Country 
Belgium 
Denmark 
Maastricht 
Finland 
Germany 
Ireland 
Italy 
Netherlands 
Spain 
Sweden 
United Kingdom Function 
Tower/Approach 
En-route 
TOTAL 
Tower/Approach 
En-route 
TOTAL 
Tower/Approach 
En-route 
TOTAL 
Tower/Approach 
En-route 
TOTAL 
Tower/Approach 
En-route 
TOTAL 
Tower/Approach 
En-route 
TOTAL 
Tower/Approach 
En-route 
TOTAL 
Tower/Approach 
En-route 
TOTAL 
Tower/Approach 
En-route 
TOTAL 
Tower/Approach 
En-route 
TOTAL 
Tower/Approach 
En-route 
TOTAL 1989 
152 
152 
152 
213 
1180 
67 
58 
125 
800 
1500 1990 
109 
80 
189 
145 
145 
220 
1225 
166 
69 
67 
136 
727 
1600 1991 
115 
81 
196 
155 
155 
227 
1334 
60 
105 
165 
71 
71 
142 
370 
452 
822 
330 
245 
575 
650 
1150 
1800 1992 
126 
89 
215 
236 
60 
105 
165 
77 
70 
147 
325 
230 
555 1993 
135 
86 
221 
106 
92 
198 
168 
69 
237 
65 
110 
175 
501 
668 
1169 
80 
71 
151 
340 
245 
585 
1900 1994 
144 
87 
231 
108 
96 
204 
164 
70 
234 
-
65 
110 
175 
515 
685 
1200 
78 
77 
155 
345 
260 
605 
1900 1995 
138 
94 
232 
105 
95 
200 
171 
171 
170 
60 
230 
65 
110 
175 
1200 
77 
76 
153 
345 
280 
625 
2000 
source: IFATCA 
055app2.96 20 
<*' 
<s 
i working days per 
week month year working 
hours per 
week breaks 
incl. maximum 
length of a 
shift (hr«) 
day / night max continuous working 
time without a break / 
day-shift 
(hra) 
radar non-radar total duration of 
breaks (hours) 
day night minimum 
time-off 
between 2 
shifts 
(hra) max number of 
consecutive 
days of work 
without a day-
off official 
allowed 
hours of 
sleep during 
night 
I 
o'. 
a 
1/5 
8 
i-
od, 
'•••§•• AUSTRIA 
BELGIUM 
CHANNBL ISLANDS 
DENMARK 
BUROC0NTR0L 
FINLAND 
FRANCE 
GERMANY 
GREBCB 
IRELAND 
ITALY 
LUXEMBOURG 
THE NETHERLANDS 
PORTUGAL 
SPAIN 
SWEDEN 
U K 5 
5 
5 
3.5 
4 - S 
6 
5 
3.5 
5 
4.5 20 
20 
22 ' 
14 
2 0 - 22 
14 
21 
19 210 
200 
22B 
140 
205 
140 
200 
230 36 
38.5 
35 
32 
38.5 
41 
35 
32 
38 
35 yes 
yes 
yes 
yes 
yes 
yea 
yes 
yes 
no 
yes 9/10 
7.20/10,20 
8.45/10.30 
7.30/12.30 
11/12 
10/10 
8/11 
7 /ll 
8/6 
8/10 
14 / 14 
10/10 1.30 
1 - 3 
2.5 
2 
2 
2.20 
2.30 
2 
2 1.30 
4 
1 - 7.5 
5 
6 
3 
2 
5.20 
8 
4 
4 .30 
2 
1.30 
1 
7 
2.30 
1 
1.30 
1.20 
2.10 
1 
2 3 
min 4 
2 
7 
2.00 
1.45 
4 8 
10 
9 
12 
10 
9 
7 
s 
8 
12 10 
4 
6 
3 
6 
6 
3 - 4 
10 
3 
10 
6 no 
yes 
no 
yes 
yes 
yes 
yes 
2.7. The costs of services provided 
The economic appraisal of the cost of facilities and staff engaged for the provision 
of ATS is based on the yearly expenditure of national administrations, which is 
reported to EUROCONTROL annually by the countries participating in the Central 
Route Charges Office (CRCO). Member states of CRCO operate a common charging 
system, in which the costs for actual services provided, added to EUROCONTROL's 
central costs, are used to establish a cost-base from which the national unit rates of 
charge can be calculated. 
The cost-base is worked out in accordance with generally accepted accounting 
principles for investment expenditure and operating costs. Investment expenditure, 
on equipment and buildings, is taken into account by amortising its cost on the basis— 
of its expected operating life. The two components of this cost are depreciation (the 
amount of capital acmally in service); and interest (which is related to the net value, 
in terms of cost - depreciation, of the capital invested). Operating costs are those 
for Air Traffic Services, communications, meteorological services and Aeronautical 
Information Services, each classified in terms of maintenance, operations, training, 
research and administration. 
The capital and operating costs for EUROCONTROL Headquarters.- including the 
Central Flow Management Unit, the Experimental Centre and the Institute of Air 
Navigation Services - are added to Member States' own national costs pro rata with 
Member States' contributions to the EUROCONTROL budget. EUROCONTROL's 
capital and operating costs for the Maastricht Centre are added to national costs pro 
rata with the use of the airspace of the participating countries for which route 
services are provided. Table 2.9., and figure 2.2., illustrate the changes in en-route 
services costs in both actual and deflated terms (at 1986 prices). 
The overall cost of Air Traffic Services in 1993 amounted to 2.147 billion ecus.. 
In order to express the series of costs at constant prices (1986), the consumer price 
index EUR12* has been used. Data given, on the deflated cost of air traffic services 
in EURO/88, show a slight increase till 1989 (3.4 percent on average) and a 
sustained increase from 1989 onwards (10 percent on average). In the period under 
analysis (1986-1993), the contribution of EUROCONTROL cost to overall cost has 
increased from 7 percent to 11 percent. 
The EUR 12 index is a weighted average of the national price indeces of the Members of the European 
Union. 
055app2.96 22 
7jS 
Table 2.9. - En-route ATS cost in EURO/88* (million of ECU) 
Actual costs 
National 
EUROCONTROL 
Total 
Costs in 1986 
National 
EUROCONTROL 
Total 1986 
916 
73 
989 1987 
963 
+5 % 
79 
+8 % 
1043 
+5 % 
936 
+2 % 
77 
+5 % 
1013 
+2 % | 198$ 
1034 
+ 8 % 
87 
+ 10 % 
1121 
+7 % 
969 
+4 % 
81 
+6 % 
1050 
+3 % 198? 
1130 
+ 10 % 
101 
+ 16 % 
1231 
+9% 
1005 
+4 % 
90 
+ 10 % 
1094 
+4% j 1990. 
1357 
+ 19 % 
105 
+4 % 
1462 
+20 % 
1148 
+ 13 % 
88 
-1 % 
1236 
+ 14 % 1991 
1574 
+ 16 % 
126 
+21 % 
1701 
+ 16 % 
1269 
+ 11 % 
102 
+ 15 % 
1371 
+ 11 % 1992 
1772 
+ 13 % 
154 
+22 % 
1927 
+ 13 % 
1365 
+8 % 
119 
+ 17 % 
4484 
+8 % 1993 
1927 
+ 11% 
220 
+42% 
2147~~ 
+9 % 
1442 
+8 % 
164 
+38% 
1606 
+6% 
source: CRCO 
Figure 2.2. - En-route ATS cost in EURO/88 
3 
O 
LU 
'Actual Eurocontrol 
tuai National 
Deflated Eurocontrol 
Deflated National 
1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 
EURO/88 is formed by Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, 
Spain and Portugal. 
055app2.96 23 
& 
Member States' costs are divided into: 
- Staff costs, 
- Other operating costs (maintenance, consumables, power etc), 
- Depreciation, 
- Interest. 
Costs between 1991 and 1994, using this breakdown, are shown in table 2.10. -
based on 11 European countries (the "EURO/88" group, with Switzerland excepted 
and Greece included). 
Overall, the main component is staff costs, which account for over half. But the 
relative importance of each cost component to the total national cost differs from 
country to country. This is explained by the following: 
- staff costs account, on average, for 56% of total costs, but with a standard 
deviation of 9%; 
- other operating costs account for 21% on average, with a standard deviation of 
12%; 
- depreciation accounts for 13 %, with a standard deviation of 5 % ; 
- interest accounts for 10%, with a standard deviation of 6%; and 
other costs count for 0%, but with a standard deviation of 2%. 
055app2.96 24 
K 
Table 2.10. - Changes in national ATC costs 1991-1994 (11 countries) 
Costs 
Actual costs 
(million ECU) 
Staff 
Operating costs 
Depreciation 
Interest 
Other 
TOTAL 
Costs in 1991 
(million of ECU) 
1 Staff 
Operating costs 
Depreciation 
Interest 
Other 
TOTAL 1991 
765 
423 
183 
153 
34 
1557 49 % 
27 % 
12 % 
10 % 
2 % 1992 
864 ! 49 % 
+ 13 % j 
485 ; 28 % 
+ 15 % | 
213 ! 12 % 
+ 17 % I 
159 | 9 % 
+4 % j 
32 . \ 2% 
-4 % j 
1754 j 
+ 13 % \ 
830 \ 
+8 % \ 
465 ! 
+ 10 % j 
205 ! ' • 
+ 12 % j 
151 - I 
-1 % ! 
32 1 
-7 % j 
1679 | 
+8 % ! 1993 
999 ; 52 % 
+ 16 % ; 
471 ; 25 % 
-3 % ; 
255 1 13 % 
+20 % | 
161 | 8 % 
+ 1 % j 
32 ! 2 % 
-2% r 
1918 j 
+9 % j 
929 | 
+ 12 % j 
434 | 
-7% [ 
237 | , 
+ 16 % j 
146 ! 
-3 % | 
30 | 
-4 % j 
1767 | 
+5 % J 1994 
1118 j 52 % 
+ 12 % | j 
499 1 23 % 
+6 % ; 
308 | 14 % 
+20 % | • • — 
187 | 9 % 
+ 16 % | 
35 \ 2% 
+ 12 % j 
2147 | 
+ 12 % ; 
j 
1012 | 
+9 % j 
453 | 
+4 % | 
279 | 
+ 18 % | 
165 | 
+ 13 % \ 
33 | 
+ 10 % ; 
1937 j 
+ 10 % I 
source: CRCO 
055app2.96 25 
3. THE DEMAND FOR EUROPEAN AIR TRAFFIC SERVICES 
3.1 The developing roles of ATS users 
There are three main users of Air Traffic Services: 
- Commercial Air Transport, 
- Military Aviation, 
- General Aviation. 
Commercial Air Transport includes all scheduled and charter airlines. General^ 
Aviation includes: 
- commercial (Air Taxis, private charters, corporate aircraft etc); and 
- leisure (private light aircraft, gliders, balloons etc). 
The relative roles of these categories in 1994, when 4.7 million flights took place in 
the "EURO/88 area", is shown by the fact that 97 percent of flights were civil 
operations (of which 92% were commercial) while military flights accounted for only 
3 percent. 
The main source of data on the en-route operational workload of air traffic control 
is EUROCONTROL's Central Route Charges Office (CRCO). From an analysis of 
en-route communications one can ascertain the number of flights operating under 
instrument flying rules (IFR) handled at en-route control centres (flights operating 
under visual rules - VFR - are excluded). The data enables a comprehensive analysis 
to be made of the demand for airspace use. For consistency, data coverage is limited 
to the eleven countries who participated in the Route Charges System before 1988 
(since then, a further six countries have joined the System; and the former East 
Germany has been incorporated into the FRG)\ Global traffic figures are shown in 
table 3.1.. The number of IFR flights controlled in the "EURO/88" area came to 
4.72 million in 1994 and represented a total of 2.923 million kilometers flown. 
Although the number of flights had grown more slowly in 1991 and 1993, flights 
became steadily longer - the average distance per flight rose from 582 km in 1988 
to 618 km in 1994. 
EURO/88 is formed by Belgium; Luxemburg, Germany, France, United kingdom,, Netherlands, 
Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Portugal. 
055app2.96 26 
if 
Table 3.1. - Trend of air traffic control workload in the "EURO/88 group of 
countries 
Total number of 
flights 
Increase over 
previous year 
Total kilometers 
flown (million) 
Average 
kilometers per 
flight 1988 
3605491 
-
2099 
-
582 1989 
3876962 
+7.53% 
2249 
+7.15% 
580 1990 
4098461 
+5.71% 
2394 
+6.45% 
584 1991 
4180127 
+ 1.99% 
2490 
+4.01% 
596 1992 
4459574 
+6.69% 
2677 
+7.51% 
600 1993 
4521977 
+ 1.40% 
2776 
+3.70% 
614 1994 
4723188 
+4.45% 
2923 
+5.30% 
619 
source: CRCO 
3.2. Distribution and patterns of demand 
The CRCO data also show the pattern of air traffic in Europe. In table 3.2. flights 
are categorised as follows: 
- "Domestic": flights wholly within one of the "EURO/88" countries. 
- "Internal": international flights operated from one of the "EURO/88" countries to 
another. 
- "External": international flights between the "EURO/88" group of countries and 
other countries. 
- Overflights. 
Figure 3.1. shows the growth in air traffic control activity during the past ten years, 
based on 1985, by category of traffic. 
Table 3.2. - Number of IFR flights handled in EURO/88 in past decade 
TYPE OF TRAFFIC 
Domestic 
Internal (international ) 
External (international) 
Overflights 
TOTAL 1985 
1203091 
814861 
837105 
51994 
2907051 1986 
1264356 
897937 
862166 
47496 
3071955 1987 
1342253 
980962 
936642 
50253 
3310110 1988 
1455717 
1070381 
1026868 
52525 
3605491 1989 
1565133 
1155993 
1102948 
52888 
3876962 1990 
1632485 
1205757 
1207155 
53064 
4098461 1991 
1680313 
1239891 
1204377 
55546 
4180127 1992 
1733481 
1317597 
1343369 
65127 
4459574 1993 
1688161 
1324891 
1433675 
75250 
4521977 1994 
1730783 
1414082 
1504586 
73737 
4723188 
source: EUROCONTROL/Division DED.4-STATFOR 
055app2.96 27 
ii 
Figure 3.1. - Growth of IFR flights handled in EURO/88 
~°— Domestic 
"D~ Internal 
•*- External 
~*~ Overflights 
1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 
Despite the economic effects of two major global events (the Gulf War of 1990, and 
the economic recession of 1991-93), since 1985 there has been strong growth in 
international traffic, with yearly average increases of 6.3 percent in "internal" traffic 
and 6.7 percent in "external" traffic. By contrast, "domestic" traffic grew more 
slowly, especially in the early 1990s, with an average annual increase over the ten 
year period of only 4.1 percent. As a result, the share of international traffic 
("internal" plus "external") increased from 56.8%in 1985 to 61.8%in 1994. 
(Similarly, the sharp increase in the number of overflights after 1991 was mainly due 
to the growth of international flights from and to European countries outside the 
"EURO/88" area.) For air traffic control, this has meant that international traffic has 
accounted for an ever increasing proportion of sector-to-sector transfer, throwing into 
sharper relief the shortcomings of European ATS as a grouping of disparate national 
systems. 
Table 3.3., and figure 3.2., look at the pattern of IFR flights in 1994. For each 
country, these are shown in terms of total flights; flights operated within national 
boundaries (domestic); international flights; and overflights. Under the symbols RT, 
RD, R, and R<j are shown the respective ranking of each country in terms of traffic 
volume for each category. For domestic flights, activity is clearly correlated to the 
size of the country; with international flights, there is a clear concentration in the 
core-area (the UK, Germany and France); and most overflights take place along the 
north-south corridor (Belgium-Germany-France-Switzerland-Austria). 
055app2.96 28 
ff 
Table 3.3. - Annual number of IFR flights in 1994 
Country 
Belgium/Luxemb. 
Germany 
France 
United Kingdom 
Netherlands 
Ireland 
Spain 
Portugal 
Switzerland 
Austria 
Greece 
Sweden 
Finland total 
653908 
1830726 
1877914 
1536042 
550171 
321235 
991335 
303611 
774818 
570776 
326285 
515452 
154573 RT 
6 
2 
1 
3 
8 
11 
4 
12 
5 
7 
10 
9 
13 Domestic 
6233 
424164 
462206 
416842 
19935 
15199 
260124 
32317 
32661 
27120 
59801 
210253 
73142 Ro 
13 
2 
1 
3 
11 
12 
4 
9 
8 
10 
7 
5 
6 International 
278905 
945513 
664297 
954148 
319431 
124364 
502463 
106923 
330333 
183579 
164364 
189141 
70890 */ 
7 
2 
3 
1 
6 
11 
4 
12 
5 
9 
10 
8 
13 Overflights 
368770 
461049 
751411 
165052 
210805 
181672 
228748 
164371 
411824 
360077 
102120 
116058 
10541 Ro 
4 
2 
1 
9 
JL 
8 
6 
10 
3 
5 
12 
11 
13 
source: EUROCONTROL/Division DED.4-STATFOR 
Figure 3.2. - Annual Number of IFR Flights in 1994 
Ç 
V) 
c> 2000000 
1800000 +-
1600000 -
1400000 -
1200000 f 
1000000 
800000 
600000 
400000 
200000 
0 • Overflights 
•international 
• Domestic 
Fra Ger UK Sp Swit Be! Aus Neth Swe Gr Ire Port Fin 
The monthly distribution shows how traffic decreases during the winter and increases 
in summer: this is more marked for international flights. From 1991, July has been 
the busiest month of the year. 
055app2.96 29 
?o 
Figure 3.3. - Monthly distribution of IFR flights in 1994 
160000 
140000 -
£120000 
êl00000 
£ 80000 
o 60000 
^ 40000 
20000 
o-^ 
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec • Domestic 
• Internal 
B External 
El Overflights 
4. THE LEVEL, AND QUALITY, OF ATS SERVICES 
4.1. Indicators of service quality 
There are three main criteria by which the success of a European ATM system can 
be judged: 
- the level of safety achieved; 
- the quality of service performed; and 
- the value for money represented by the,services delivered. 
The system is assessed against these criteria using performance indicators: 
- the number of airmisses (as an indicator of safety levels); 
- delay monitoring (as an indicator of service quality); 
- the levels of en-route charges; and productivity factors (as indicators of value for 
money). 
4.2. Level of safety 
Over the last 15 years, the number of airmisses recorded by IATA in the European 
region has remained relatively stable (with the exception of 1989 and 1990 - see 
figure 4.1). At the same time, traffic increased tremendously, which has meant a 
steady reduction in the rate of airmisses as a proportion of the number of flights 
handled by the ATC system. 
055app2.96 30 
V 
It has to be noted that this continuous improvement was achieved at the same time 
that the introduction of new technologies allowed a gradual reduction in separation 
between aircraft. Neither was it adversly affected by airspace congestion and 
consequent delays : on the contrary, these delays were often introduced to maintain 
400 Figure - Total airmisses for EUR region (source IATA) 
the safety level of the system at the expense of its punctuality. 
However, the growth of air transport continually keeps up the pressure on an already 
overcrowded system and new methods of assessing safety against capacity will have 
to be developed if the improvement in airmisses is to be maintained. 
4.3. Factors influencing airspace capacity 
"Airspace capacity" means the maximum number of aircraft that can be handled 
simultaneously by a typical sector while maintaining an acceptable safety level. 
Capacity will therefore depend on: 
- the minimum separation between aircraft, and hence the maximum potential 
number of aircraft movements at any one time; and 
- the size of the sector, in terms of the volume of airspace controlled. 
Capacity can be improved by increasing the number of flights handled in the sector; 
by decreasing their separation; and by reducing the size of the sector's airspace while 
maintaining the number of flights controlled. 
The degree of separation between aircraft depends on several factors. The principal 
one is the criteria applied for radar separation, which will depend on the accuracy 
of the radar system and the display representation. Standards for all radar sub­
systems are set by criteria for the performance of the radar sensor, and the central 
data processing equipment. Other factors may affect the use of a particular radar 
055app2.96 31 
n 
system, and hence the separation minima: 
- Communications. It is essential to have proper means of communication, with 
proper coverage and performance, which always allow immediate contact with 
aircraft. 
- Meteorology. Adverse weather conditions can mean that wider separation 
distances has to be allowed between aircraft. 
- Airspace Management and Procedures. This means having a type of airspace 
structure and network which has the maxinum flexibility to adapt to different 
radar separation requirements. 
- The human element. This includes pilots, who must be able to monitor and 
respond promptly to controllers' instructions, as well as the controlllers 
themselves. The extent of controllers' expertise, experience and stamina are 
critical factors when establishing the maximum workload they can cope with. 
To an extent it is possible to increase capacity and solve the problems linked to 
workload by decreasing the size of the sector - the area of responsibility of the 
individual controller. Increasing the number of sectors in this way could, however, 
give rise to new problems by increasing the amount of coordination needed. 
The benefits of closer radar separation within a particular sector can be lost if 
separation distances have to be increased significantly as aircraft approach the sector 
boundaries to be transferred to the next en-route sector. Indeed, the disparity in radar 
separation standards on international routes is one of the single most inhibiting factor 
in determining capacity in Europe. Before a single minimum radar separation 
standard could be applied across the European area, however, controllers would need 
to be able to have a clear picture of the traffic in neighbouring sectors as well as 
their own. This would require overlapping radar and R/T coverage; standard display 
screen characteristics, when two adjacent aircraft are under control of different 
centres; compatible airspace structures on both sides of the sector boundary; and an 
understanding of the procedures and equipment in neighbouring sectors. 
The main failing of the present system, in terms of meeting demand, is lack of 
capacity. This stems principally from the relatively low degree of interoperability of 
equipment and the inefficient deployment of controllers. Scarce capacity means 
delays, and less flexibility in the use of airspace. Delays are often regarded as a 
useful indicator of system capacity : when and where they are reported, shortage of 
ATC capacity could be their cause. However, measuring capacity levels in this way 
first requires a proper analysis of the different possible causes of delay. In May 1995 
EC AC s INSTAR Study Group concluded that there were three main causes of 
capacity bottlenecks and consequent delay. Lack of technical infrastructure, especially 
the quality and quantity of radar coverage, accounts for about 10 percent of total 
ATM delays, while staff shortages in ATC centres account for about another 10 
percent. The study concluded, however, that by far the biggest cause - accounting 
for some 80% of delays - was the effective limit on a controller's workload, 
especially in the core area, in terms of the maximum number of flights that he can 
safely handle at any one time. This limit will vary from sector to sector, and may 
indeed depend in large part on the individual controller. This factor is also a result 
055app2.96 32 
11 
of a system not offering the controller optimal working conditions. Therefore, the 
many factors involved (poor airspace design, deficiencies in technical equipment, 
controller workload) need to be studied in depth before conclusions can be drawn 
about improving efficiency in this area. 
4.4. Assessing the causes of ATC delays 
Delays affect both aircraft operators, because increased flight times directly affect 
airlines' costs; and passengers, in terms of inconvenience and reduced reliability of 
flying compared to other means of travel. Delays also mean that airspace capacity 
is not used effectively, since the effect is to spread the same flow of flights over a 
longer period; and the resulting increase in ATC operators' costs per kilometer flawn-
is directly reflected in user charges. 
Although EUROCONTROL, IATA and AEA monotor delays across Europe, current 
tools for measuring delays are still being developed. Delays resulting from ATC 
activity cannot always be directly identified, or their causes.and impact assessed 
properly. There are significant limitations, therefore, in our understanding of the 
influence of capacity capacity shortages. Indeed, system elements are so 
interdependent that a some quite unrelated factor - such as weather, or an accident 
which blocks a key feeder road to an airport - may upset flight schedules in the first 
place; but a fundamental shortage of ATC capacity may exacerbate the disruption. 
More research is needed on these interactions. 
There are three main sets of statistics on delays. Two have been developed by 
airlines organisations (IATA and AEA) and the third consists of data from national 
Flow Management Units (FMU) which has been continued, more recently, by 
EUROCONTROL's Central Flow Management Unit (CFMU). Table 4.2. 
summarises the main techniques used in assembling each one. All three surveys take 
into account departure delays. 
The LATA survey collects data regularly from a sample of carriers - international 
flights by 16 European and American carriers - and analyses them on a monthly 
basis. While the IATA survey is necessarily limited in scope, it is useful in that it: 
- samples the delays incurred by major international carriers for all their 
international scheduled flights - a particularly important sector of the market; 
- shows historic trends for different causes of delay; and whether they are related 
directly to ATC operations, or more indirectly through flow restrictions, industrial 
action etc; 
055app2.96 33 
<H 
Figure 4.3. - Average delay per delayed flight on a monthly basis 
35,00 
0,00 1990 
1991 
1992 
1993 
1994 
1995 
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 
Table 4.2. - General criteria of present statistics on delays 
Source 
IATA 
AEA 
CFMU Start year 
1989 
1986 
1985 Collection 
method 
Report of 
airlines 
Report of 
airlines 
Report of 
FMUs Calculation 
method 
Difference between actual 
off-blocks time and 
scheduled time of departure 
(>5 minutes) 
Difference between actual 
off-blocks time and 
scheduled time of departure 
(>15 minutes) 
Difference between last 
requested slot time and last 
allocated slot time 
(>5 minutes) Type of 
x delay 
ATC & ATC 
related causes 
Airport & 
ATC caused 
Flow 
management 
restrictions : - Sample 
(na of carriers/ 
yearly fights). 
16 
1.4 million 
25 
1.4 million 
all carriers 
4.7 million 
- attempts to draw conclusions about the extent to which delays are attributable to 
weaknesses in the ATS structure, in terms of capacity shortages resulting from a 
lack of technical or human resources. 
Table 4.3. shows the main results of the IATA survey over the last five years. 
055app2.96 34 
f 
Table 4.3. - Yearly results of IATA-ATC delay survey (year: from July to June) 
Total number of flights 
Number of flights delayed 
Percentage of flights delayed 
Delay in minutes 
Average delay per delayed 
flight 90/91 
1,034,760 
185,719 
17.95% 
4,231,040 
22.78 91/92 
1,173,018 
+ 13,4% 
196,751 
+5.9% 
16.77% 
4,276,069 
+ 1.1% 
21.73 92/93 
1,291,311 
+ 10.1% 
173,153 
-12.0% 
13.41% 
3,109,602 
-27.3% 
17.96 93/94 
1,464,663 
+ 13.4% 
133,502 
-22.9% 
9.1% 
2,191,292 
-29.5% 
16.4 94/95 
1,475,762 
+0.8% 
144,373 
+8.1% 
9.8% 
2,612,437 
+ 19.2% 
18.1 
source: IATA 
Although the sample has changed over the period, the figures show the trend: after 
Figure 4.2. - Montly percentage of flights delayed 
25.00% 
20,00% HfifT -
Z 15,00% o 
<D 
D> 
CO 
§ 10,00% 
5,00% 
0,00% -i : u •O—1990 
•D—1991 
-A-1992 
-*-1993 
-*—1994 
-0-1995 
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 
steady improvements up to 1993/94, the situation deteriorated last year. Figures 4.2. 
and 4.3. contain the same information on a monthly basis, showing how delays tend 
to peak over the summer. 
The FMUs delay survey was started in 1985 on a small scale, and was expanded in 
1991 when the CFMU took over responsability for it. The object of this exercise was 
to survey all flights planned to operate on restricted routes, flying from areas for 
which the FMUs had flow management responsibility to other European destinations. 
All flights were included whenever they were affected by traffic flow restrictions, 
even if they experienced no delay. Delays were calculated in terms of the time 
between the initial slot allocation and actual take-off (times of less than 10 minutes 
were disregarded). 
055app2.96 35 
# 
The departure and destination areas in the sample were initially selected in order to 
concentrate on looking at the North-South flow (from the UK, France, Benelux and 
FRG to Italy, France, Spain and Greece). They were later extended, however, to 
include other areas where traffic growth threatened a need for restrictions (such as 
Gatwick airport, and the Netherlands); and the inconsistencies resulting from this and 
other changes preclude the production of exhaustive historical statistics. 
Table 4.4. - Monthly results of FMUs delay survey from 1986 to 1989 
YEAR 
1986 
1987 
1988 
1989 MONTH 
June 
July 
August 
Total 
June 
July 
August 
Total 
June 
" July 
August 
Total 
June 
July ~ 
August 
Total WEEK 
23-29 
21-27 
25-31 
22-28 
20-26 
24-30 
20-26 
18-24 
22-28 
26-02 
"24:30""" 
28-03 Traffic flow 
16391 
16148 
16323 
48862 
17763 
17395 
17810 
52968 
19445 
18582 
19108 
57135 
21969 
21147 
21780 
64896 Reported 
flights 
2773 
3029 
2654 
8456 
4267 
2986 
3176 
10429 
8986 
9579 
9946 
28511 
12318 
12391 
11065 
35774 Ç , 
Reported 
delay 
16745 
13371 
14683 
44799 
60748 
26788 
19083 
106619 
125744 
125224 
106336 
357304 „ 
237094 
211292 
137793 
586179 % delayed 
flights 
16.92% 
18.76% 
16.26% 
17.31% 
24.02% 
17.17% 
17.83% 
19.69% 
46.21% 
51.55% 
52.05% 
49.90% 
56.07% 
58.59% 
50.80% 
55.13% Average 
delay 
6.04 
4.41 
5.53 
5.30 
14.24 
8.97 
6.01 
10.22 
13.99 
13.07 
10.69 
12.53 
19.25 
Ï7.05""" 
12.45 
16.39 
source: EUROCONTROL 
Nevertheless, table 4.4. has been drawn up to compare, year by year, delays in three 
separate weeks over June, July and August, even though the sample coverage has 
changed over the period. 
Bearing these limitations in mind, the table shows how delays rose dramatically in 
1988 from a stable level in 1986 and 1987, both in terms of the number of delayed 
flights and length of the average delay. 
From 1992, with the inauguration of EUROCONTROL's CFMU, a coordinated 
approach has meant that data could be collected on a daily basis and analysed 
monthly. At the same time, the survey was extended to cover the entire European 
region, recording: 
055app2.96 36 
<?? 
- the estimated total number of flights per month that passed through the area of an 
FMU's responsibility (from data supplied by CRCO); 
- the number of slots requested for flights subject to flow control measures which 
were obliged to request slots; 
- the delay between a requested slot time and the actual take-off time if this was 
longer than five minutes. 
Table 4.5. shows the results, year by year. Last year saw about 160,000 hours of 
delays - the percentage of flights delayed increased to 8.9%; and the average delay 
went up to 23 minutes. This setback is confirmed when the information is analysed 
Figure 4.4. - Monthly percentage of flighs delayed (CFMU) 
25,00% 
0,00% 
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec •1992 
•1993 
1994 
•1995 
Figure 4.5. - Average delay per delayed flight (CFMU) 
» 25,00 -B 
-| 20,00 
° 10,00 
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec •1992 
•1993 
•1994 
'1995 
on a monthly basis (figures 4.4. and 4.5.). 
055app2.96 37 
S-
Table 4.5. - Yearly results of CFMU delay survey (year: from July to June) 
Total number of flights 
Number of flights delayed 
Percentage of flights delayed 
Delay in minutes 
Average delay per delayed-
flight 92m 
3,698,061 
408,994 
11.1% 
9,464,541 
23.1 93/94 
4,443,245 
357,652 
8.1% 
8,046,979 
22.5 94/95 
4,663,969 
+5.0% 
415,108 
+ 16.1% 
8.9% 
9,558,647 
+ 18.8% 
23.0 
(year 1992 from August) 
source: EUROCONTROL 
A recent review by the CFMU looked at the 30 busiest sectors in Europe in 1994. 
Leaving aside delays of less than 15 minutes, it still attributed between 100,000 and 
170,000 hours of departure delay to ATC causes. Three main causes are set out in 
table 4.6. below. 
Table 4.6. - Estimation of delay and related causes in 1994 
Causes 
Airport and ATM constraints 
ATM constraints 
- Inefficient rostering 
- Lack of technical infrastructure 
- Maxima placed on controller 
workload in elementary sectors . ' Yearly Delay 
Proportion 
100% j 
50-80%! 100% 
j 10% 
j 8% 
; 82% Hours 
200,000 
100,000 to 170,000 
10,000 to 17,000 
8,000 to 14,000 
82,000 to 140,000 Improvement measures 
Recruit controllers 
Improve rostering 
Complete radar coverage 
Revise airspace structure/network 
Implement joint use of airspace 
Improve flow management 
Improve controller tools 
Source: Ecac Instar Study Group - May 1995 
055app2.96 38 
tf 
4.5. En-route charges 
Route charges are levied for the use of en-route air navigation facilities and services. 
Within the EU all Member States except Italy, Finland and Sweden operate a 
common charging system for en-route air navigation services in the airspace for 
which they are responsible. This common system is operated by the Central Route 
Charges Office (CRCO) of EUROCONTROL on behalf of the Contracting States. 
The route charges recover the costs incurred by Air Traffic Control organisations for 
en-route air navigation services (see paragraph 2.7.). The overall charge exacted-by 
a Contracting State equates to the sum of individual charges for flights which have 
entered the airspace of that State. The individual charge for a flight is calculated by 
multiplying the national unit rate of charge by the number of "service nuits" of that 
flight. For each country, the national unit rate of charge is fixed each year by 
dividing the national en-route facility cost-base by the total number of "service units" 
in that country's airspace in that year. The calculation of "service units" is a function 
of the distance flown by an aircraft, expressed in terms of one hundredths of the 
great circle distance between the point of entry into the country's airspace and the 
point of exit from it, multiplied by the weight factor of the aircraft expressed as the 
square root of its maximum certificated take-off weight. The points of entry into and 
exit from that airspace are assumed to be along the most commonly used routes 
between the airports of departure and arrival. "Unit rates of charge" for a year are 
fixed at the end of the previous year, on the basis of actual costs. There is a 
mechanism which allows any consequent disparities to be adjusted subsequently. 
Finally, these values must refer only to chargeable flights. (Some flights are usually 
exempted - such as those by aircraft under 2 tons, State aircraft, search and rescue 
flights, military flights, training flights, and Navaid check flights.) 
Table 4.7. and figure 4.6. show how the unit rate of charge has changed between 
1985 and 1995 for the 11 European countries in the "EURO/88" area, in terms of: 
- the average unit rates calculated by dividing the sum of the forecast costs 
chargeable to users by the sum of the forecast chargeable service units ; and 
expressed in current and constant terms (1985) ; 
- the sum of costs, and of number, of chargeable service units forecast to determine 
previous unit rates. 
055app2.96 39 
Table 4.7. - Average unit rate in the "EURO/88" area. 
Unit Rate 
(ECU) 
Deflated Unit Rate 
(ECU in 1985) 
Costs forecasted 
(million of ECU) 
Chargeable Service 
Units forecasted 
(millions) 1985 
41.92 
-
41.92 
-
785.63 
-
18.74 
-1986 
37.58 
-10.35% 
36.14 
-13.80% 
738.83, 
-5.%% 
19.66 
+4.9% 1987 
42.49 
+ 13.06% 
39.71 
+ 9.89% 
892.08 
+20.74% 
20.99 
+ 6.8% 198& 
41.12 
-3.22% 
37.04 
-6.71% 
964.50 
+ 8.12% 
23.46 
+ 11,7% 1989 
43.92 
+ 6.81% 
37.54 
+ 1.33% 
1139.04 
+ 18.10% 
25.93 
+ 10.6% 1990 
47.29 
+7.66% 
38.47 
+2.50% 
1288.05 
+ 13.08% 
27.24 
+ 5.0% 1991 
55.91 
+ 18.24% 
43.31 
+ 12.56% 
1685.24 
+30.84% 
30.14 
+ 10.6% 1992 
61.16 
+9.39% 
45.44 
• +4.92% 
1911.10 
+ 13.40% 
31.25 
+3.7% 1993 
62.36 
+ 1.96% 
44.83 
-1.34% 
2166.10 
+ 13.34% 
34.74 
+ 11.2% 1994 
63.83 
+2.36% 
44.51 
-0.71% 
2247.52 
+3.76% 
35.21 
+ 1.4% 1995 
63.38 
-0.71% 
-
-
2406.79 
+7.09% 
37.97 
+7.8% 
Source: CRCO 
Figure 4.6. - Evolution of average unit rate in EURO/88 
E> Unit Rate 
• Deflated Unit Rate 
1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 
Real unit rates wavered up and down between 1985 and 1990, and then rose sharply 
(the average growth in 1991 and 1992 was 8.7%). Since 1992 real unit rates have 
been slowly falling. Looking at the influence of the different factors that 
determine unit rates (the cost-base and forecast service units), the trend is explained 
as follows: 
- until 1990 the increased value of service units (yearly average, 7.5%) was 
accompanied by a - lower - increase in the cost-base (yearly average, 5.9%); 
- after 1990 there was a stronger increase in the cost-base (yearly average, 10.6%) 
which was not matched in 1991 and 1992 by a corresponding increase in the value 
of service units; 
- most recently (since 1993), this trend has reversed due to a sustained increase in 
traffic. 
055app2.96 40 
A^l 
Further considerations can be drawn when the basis of the values of costs, service 
units and unit rates are expressed in actual terms. 
Table 4.8. shows: 
- the number of actual total service units in the "EURO/88" area; 
- the number of chargeable service units in the area; 
- the number of service units exempted; 
- the actual unit rate (derived by dividing actual costs by actual service units, 
representing the theorical charge that would have been imposed on airspace users 
each year). 
Table 4.8. - Actual Service Units generated in EURO/88 area 
Actual Unit Rate 
(ECU) 
Chargeable Service 
Units generated 
(millions) 
Exempted Service 
Units generated 
(millions) 
Total Service Units 
generated 
(millions) 1985 
na 
19.22 
-
1.83 
21.08 1986 
48.54 
20.37 
+5.99% 
1.88 
+2.80% 
22.27 
" +5.7% 1987 
46.74 
22.31 
+ 9.48% 
1.96 
+4.06% 
24.30 
+ 9.1% 1988. 
46.08 
24.33 
+9.06% 
2.01 
+2.43% 
26.39 
+ 8.6% 1989 
47.45 
25.95 
+6.66% 
2.15 
+7.10% 
28.10 
+ 6\5%" 1990 
53.72 
27.22 
+4.89% 
3.00 
+ 39.50% 
30.22 
"+7.5%* : 1991 
57.83 
29.41 
+ 8.07% 
2.06 
-31.21% 
31.48 
+4.2% 1992 
58.84 
32.74 
+ 11.32% 
1.10 
-46.84% 
33.84 
+7.5% 1993-
62.64 
34.27 
+4.6% 
1.11 
+ 1.03% 
35.38 
+4.6%" 1994 
na 
36.28 
+5.9% 
1.01 
-8.5% 
37.29 
"+7.4%"" 
Over the past decade the number of total service units has increased at an annual rate 
of 6.5 percent, reaching about 37.3 million in 1994. If these figures are compared 
with the corresponding figures on kilometers flown, it is clear that the increase in 
service units is principally due to the growth of air traffic generally, whether seen 
in terms of kilometers flown or the number of flights ; while the influence of 
aircraft weight has remained constant. 
4.6. Efficiency issues 
Air Traffic Control Services are operated at present as monopolies. Services are 
provided and controlled by single organisations in each state. As a result, as with 
many public services, the main motivation for the management of Air Traffic 
Services has been technical efficiency. However, the need to provide services to an 
ever-increasing international air traffic market has pointed up the fact that this 
imperative, which derives from national considerations, does not necessarily match 
the idea of a common European service functioning as if it were provided by a single 
unified system. 
055app2.96 41 
Jû^ 
0,6 
0,55 
ê 0.5 
o 0,45 
0,4 Figure 4.7. -Average cost per km and per flight in EURO/88 
400,00 
350,00 
300,00 r 
250,00 -s; o O 
200,00 
1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 "Cost per km 
"Cost per flight 
The issue of future investment in human and technological resources to achieve a 
harmonisation and integration of the different national systems, and the consequent 
effects for airspace users, inevitably raises the question of cost efficiency. What 
integration has been achieved so far enables us now to compare the different national 
systems in terms of the management and organisation of ATC centres. Such a 
comparison could well suggest that there are opportunities to reduce costs further. 
European Air Traffic Control Services have very varying unit costs. As we have 
seen, the biggest differences are in staff and operating costs, which are reflected in 
the different unit rates charged by various countries. To some extent, the causes of 
these disparities are differences in quantity and quality of the manpower and 
equipment required to handle air traffic. It is undeniable that the more complex 
traffic handling becomes, so the more properly-trained staff and sophisticated 
equipment are required. Other causes related to staff costs, and hence availability, 
are the high differences in salaries, other remuneration and social security 
contributions paid by different countries. 
Looking back over the last ten years, productivity indicators of Air Traffic Services -
in terms of unit costs per kilometer flown, and per flight, in terms of ECUs at 1986 
prices - show a positive trend until 1989 followed by a decline in productivity after 
1991 at an average annual rate of 4.3% (see figure 4.7.). This suggests that between 
1989 and 1993 there were no economies of scale: while total traffic volume increased 
by an average of 5.4% per annum, the overall discounted cost increased even further, 
by an average of 10% per annum. This trend is expected to continue next year. 
Looking at national figures, for some countries this is likely to be even more 
pronounced. 
055app2.96 42 
4&Ï 
These trends are not entirely explicable by technical or external effects (such as 
differences in labour and systems costs), which suggests that there may well be scope 
for further cost reductions. A recent study by INSTAR suggested that ATC efficiency 
could be improved to the tune of 600 million ECU a year (in 1993 cost terms), in 
the following ways: 
- reducing the costs of support personnel (i.e. in engineering, technical, 
administrative and managerial functions); 
- reducing the level of "other" costs reported to the CRCO (such as meteorological 
services, telecommunications etc); and "" 
improving controller productivity. 
If such a cost reduction had been achieved in 1993 it would have led to a 
corresponding reduction in the average unit rate of charge in "EURO/88" countries 
of some 30 percent. The study also suggests that possible improvements in cost 
performance as a function of centre size should not be disregarded. Larger centres 
do not seem to be necessarily more efficient then smaller ones: the study concludes 
that the significant variance in costs between ATM organisations may well mean that 
any economies of scale are currently masked by differences in cost efficiency 
between different ATC centres. 
055app2.96 43 
Appendix 3 
BASIC INFRASTRUCTURE REQUIREMENTS 
1. Introduction 
This Appendix sets out the Community's priorities for investment in the fields of 
Communications, Navigation, Surveillance and Automation of ATM functions. 
When preparing the ATM component of the Trans-European Transport Network and trying 
to make its mind on the priorities for Community action in this area, the Commission 
realised the need for a more focussed view on the kind of projects which would .yield the best 
results in term of improving capacity and safety. 
Accordingly, it decided to launch a study, in co-operation with EUROCONTROL to ensure 
consistency with the CIP, aimed at identifying by mean of a multicriteria analysis the most 
promissing avenues for Community funding. This study, by analysing the Member States' 
investment plans, has identified three broad guidelines for action within which short term 
expenditure (up to 1997/98) can be coordinated with longer term spending (until 2000 or 
2001). These guidelines are as follows : 
- to improve the continuity and quality of surveillance in Europe, 
- to improve the coverage and quality of the communication system, 
- to improve the interoperability of ATC systems and the automation of operational 
coordination. 
These guidelines have been further refined and broken down into two kind of project 
groups : 
"short-term projects", to bring on stream equipment available today and/or to apply 
common specifications already drawn up. This is a matter of supporting individual 
countries in their work to modernise their infrastructure, 
- "medium-term projects", based on specifications still being drawn up which have yet to 
be validated by experimental equipment but which should become commercially available 
in the next few years. Here, the Community's role is to support the operational validation 
activities and the work being undertaken to prepare these new technologies for 
deployment by the year 2000. 
It has to be underlined that the terms "short-term projects" and "medium-term projects" are 
CP/055app3\96 1 
^*?> 
used from a technical point of view to designate respectively short-term technologies 
implementation and new technologies pre-operational validation. From an investement point 
of view it is obvious that investment in "medium-term projects" should start very early in 
order to prepare in good time for the deployment of those technologies by the year 2000. 
In addition, steps must be taken to create a European component for the global navigation 
satellite system which, in January 1994, the Community decided to make one of its 
priorities.1 
2. The basic infrastructure for Air Traffic Management 
2.1. Communications 
Improving communications between pilots and controllers and between the controllers 
themselves will obviously improve capacity and safety by reducing the risks of 
misunderstanding. 
For short-term projects, the Community's objective should be to help improve the coverage 
and quality of the existing analogue RT network. This means, in order of priority : 
setting up new VHF receiving/transmitting stations, or upgrading existing ones; 
improving the RT ground environment and installating equipment for frequency 
management; 
preparating for the changeover to 8.33 kHz channel spacing. 
For medium term projects, preparatory work should be put in hand towards setting up the 
Aeronautical Telecommunication Network (ATN). Examples of projects under this heading 
might be : ' 
pre-operational development of the ATN Europe, preparing the ground segment of the 
network; 
joint feasibility studies and experiments on the changeover from existing applications 
to an ATN architecture; 
common pre-operational validation work in particular on air/ground communications, 
which should help to alleviate R/T overloads as well as controller's workload ; 
the development by industry of pre-operational products and ATN services. 
In association with this pre-deployment joint activity, individual countries should take 
concrete action to introduce elements of the ATN from 1998/99. 
1 COM(94) 238 final. 14.6.1994. 
CP/055app3\96 
stlft> 
2.2. The European component of a GNSS 
When the 29th ICAO Assembly adopted the CNS/ATM concept it was recognised 
world-wide that new technology could improve the capacity of the air transport, 
infrastructure. Studies and experience acquired with the US military GPS demonstrated that 
a space-based navigation system can also be of benefit to all other modes of transport. 
Particular benefits for the aviation sector will come from greater accuracy in position 
determination; and the ability to receive positioning signals over remote areas such as oceans 
and desert regions. 
The European Commission therefore decided to support the implementation of a global 
navigation satellite system. 
A Communication was adopted in June 19942 in order to define a way ahead for Europe. The 
Ministers of Transport fully supported the initiative of the Commission and adopted a 
Resolution in December 19943. The European Parliament also underlined the need to take 
action on this4. 
The European Commission, EUROCONTROL and the European Space Agency have 
established a Tripartite Group to coordinate activities of the three organizations within the 
framework of a European Satellite Navigation Action Programme. This programme 
comprises two parallel elements : 
the implementation of the European Contribution to the first generation of Global 
Navigation Satellite System (GNSS 1) to enable users to gain early benefits from 
existing military satellite systems (GPS, GLONASS) through the setting up of civilian 
wide area and/or local area augmentation, the latter being needed for precision 
approaches and increased navigational, accuracy, thus making possible new or reduced 
separation standards and increased ATC capacity. 
preparatory work needed for the design and organisation of the second generation 
Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS 2) for civil use. 
The ultimate objective of the European Commission is to contribute to the implementation 
2 COM(94) 248 of 16.6.94 
. 3 JO n* C 379/3 du 31.12.1994 
4 Coraelissen Report 30.11.1994 
CP/055app3\96 3 
/J^t 
of a global system that can be certified as the sole means for all phases of flight. It is widely 
recognised that GNSS 1 may only be a transitional step to that goal. 
The Tripartite Group has already assembled budgetary provisions for the implementation of 
a European contribution to GNSS l5 : this budget will enable the Initial Operational 
Capability (IOC) phase to be undertaken, based on a limited ground infrastructure. As well 
as those technical developments, work has still to be done on defining the requirements for 
an institutional framework7 for service provision, system operation, certification, liability, 
etc. 
Early benefits for the Air Traffic Management sector will therefore only be effective if : 
resources are made available to enable the implementation of the Full Operational 
Capability phase to be implemented. The potential for joint ventures between public and 
private bodies should be explored; 
an appropriate institutional framework is adopted to provide the necessary legal 
instruments for certification, financing and exploitation of the IOC phase. The 
Commission has already set up a High Level Advisory Group with representatives of 
the national governments and all other relevant participants in order to flesh out such 
a framework. 
2.3 Surveillance 
The extent to which surveillance is continuous, and of a high quality, has an obvious impact 
on: 
capacity, in as much as uniformity of surveillance facilitates the reduction of 
separations, especially at frontiers between national systems, where differences in 
performance levels have created unnecessarily large margins; 
safety, to the extent that greater precision allows a swifter detection of possible 
navigation errors. 
For the short term projects therefore, the aim of Community action should be to encourage 
the establishment of a comprehensive monitoring network which meets appropriate quality 
standards (that is, those achievable with monopulse secondary radars). This means, in 
descending order of priority : 
setting up new monopulse radars, to provide total coverage 
adapting existing interrogators to monopulse technology, and, 
5 EC participation comes from the Trans European Transport Network and the 4th Framework 
Programme. 
CP/055app3'.96 
si ûi 
bringing existing monopulse radars into line with the new surveillance standards. 
For the medium term projects Community action will aim to develop pre-operational 
validation and support measures in connection with the deployment of the new technologies 
(Mode-S radar and ADS) . The broad thrust of this will be as follows : 
technical and operational experiments to do with Mode-S, starting with the core area; 
and preparatory measures for its deployment (such as revising radar network diagrams 
and coverage charts); 
setting-up an infrastructure for the retrieval of ADS data in the North Atlantic, the_ 
Mediterranean and the Scandinavian countries, and the integration of ADS data in 
surveillance servers; 
operational assessment of the effects of reducing vertical separations, particularly over 
the North Atlantic. 
2.4 Automation of operational coordination and new Data Processing Systems 
Action in this area covers projects designed to increase the automation of operational 
coordinations between controllers, and measures to ensure better integration and automation 
of radar data and flight plan data processing systems. 
Although appearing less obvious, the potential contribution of automatic data exchange 
services in boosting capacity and improving safety is perhaps more important than those of 
all the other improvements already mentioned. For instance, the replacement of voice 
communication links between controllers by a system of automatic data exchange reduces the 
controller's work load; and the effects of this in terms of increasing the productivity of the 
controllers - although difficult to measure at this stage - could be considerable. 
For short term projects, Community action should focus on the development of the national 
data exchange networks, their interconnection and the automatic distribution of the various 
types of ATC data (radars, flight plans and coordination messages). Possible projects could 
include: 
setting up or extending terrestrial data networks, based on international standards (X25, 
ISDN, etc.); 
installing the hardware needed for the interconnection of these networks; 
installing network management systems to enhance the operational availability and 
efficiency of the service provided; 
implementing generic application protocols (X400, FT AM, etc.) and/or transport 
protocols in support of specific automatic data-exchange applications between the 
computers of ATC centres. In certain cases, this may mean that flight-plan processing 
computers still in use at certain ATC centres have to be replaced. 
Priorities for action - in descending order of importance - are to set up: 
4 
CP/055app3*.96 
sUf 
transnational connections, 
national networks or data links; 
networks needed for the exchange of radar data. 
For medium term projects, Community involvement will concentrate on the integration of 
the Radar Data Processing Systems (RDPS) and the Flight Data Processing Systems (FDPS) 
within a distributed data base structure. On the technical side, this will seek to: 
implement RDPSs which comply with EUROCONTROL specifications for the 
processing of radar data; 
implement a new FDPS based on common functional specifications; 
improve the degree of correlation between FDPS and RDPS. 
In view of the complexity of the systems under consideration and the need for a common 
approach to the development of new-generation RDPSs and FDPSs, the Community will give 
priority to supporting pre-implementation measures. Possible examples of such measures 
are : 
feasibility studies and other necessary measures, such as the development of prototype 
systems, for a common European approach to the new generation of FDPSs; 
feasibility studies and other essential measures to do with adapting ATC centres to 
enable them to use the RDPS specifications proposed by EUROCONTROL; 
studies on adapting pilot surveillance systems to the needs of Mode-S. 
CP/055app3'.96 
/I** 
Appendix 4 
RESEARCH AND TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT (RTD) ACTIVITIES 
FOR AIR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT. 
1. Introduction 
The identification and planning of RTD activities in the field of ATM in Europe is a process 
involving many interested parties, national administrations, research centres, universities and 
systems manufacturers. 
The concepts for the future ATM environment developed within the ICAO/FANS group, 
which injected a new way of thinking in this field, addressed heavily the use of satellites, 
particularly for communication and navigation purposes. This led EUROCONTROL and 
then also European Space Agency (ESA) to include in their plans new subjects for RTD 
activities for ATM improvement. 
With the spirit of supporting the ICAO/CNS Concepts the Commission services being 
involved under different titles in ATM RTD, started the ECARDA1 initiative with the 
primary objective to coordinate RTD activities aimed at developing, evaluating and 
demonstrating new operational concepts based on advanced ATM functions and 
technologies so as to build the future European ATM system. 
2. The future system 
The future system is intended to be a well-understood, manageable, cost-effective and 
dynamic system that keeps pace with user needs for safety, capacity and efficiency as well 
as environmental requirements. This future system will be characterised by : 
a. improved internetworking between elements of the system regardless of their physical 
distribution (distributed system); 
b. an increased degree of automation, providing system users and service providers with 
increased efficiency through enhanced interfaces; 
c. the flexibility to provide appropriate capacity to match the changes.in requirements 
resulting from the evolving traffic patterns imposed by the fluctuations of the demand. 
ECARDA (European Coherent Approach for RTD in Air traffic management, SEC (94) 1475), an inititiave 
undertaken by the three DGs VII.XII, and Xm to define a coherent framework for RTD activities in the field of 
ATM 
055app4.96 
Wl 
The ATM system can be broken down into its individual components and elements, as set 
out below, and the RTD activities are assessing the various options to establish their benefits 
and drawbacks to enable the future system configuration to be defined. Broadly, introducing 
new procedures and technologies should facilitate the integration of the Flight Management 
Systems on board aircraft and air traffic control functions in the ground; support all ATM 
planning levels from strategic-long term through to operational monitoring and tactical 
control; and speed up the introduction of improved airspace management. 
2.1. Airspace Management 
For airspace management, the application of area navigation (RNAV) techniques in ATM 
can be made as new aircraft navigation systems are introduced. This will allow die 
implementation of new route profiles, comprising for example parallel tracks, tubes, fixed*—-
and random routes, flexible, mixed or dynamic routes, which together with reduced 
separation criteria will increase the utilisation of airspace, thereby contributing to an 
expected increase in the ATM capacity. The airspace structure should be adapted in a 
dynamic and flexible way to prevent restrictions on traffic flow during peak times. 
2.2. ATM Procedures 
The definition of the preferred ATM procedures is a very important part of the system 
definition process and starts from the planning of ATM system capacity tô meet traffic 
demand. A number of planning layers are envisaged with new roles being assigned to the 
operators, covering Airspace Management (ASM), Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) 
and Air Traffic Control (ATC) at centre level, taking account of the options of traffic 
segregation based on equipment fit, aircraft performance, reduced horizontal, vertical and/or 
time separation standards, autonomous aircraft, free flight, dynamic sectorisation etc. To 
expedite the flow of traffic, airport operations, including airlines systems, Advanced Surface 
Movement Guidence Control and Management Systems (A-SMGCS) and landside 
operations, have to be integrated into the ATM system. 
2.3. Control Strategies 
The design of the future ATM system depends heavily on how control is carried out and 
where responsibilities will reside. The task sharing between the automated system 
components, on the ground and in the air, and the human has to be addressed to establish 
how automated systems could help the work of air traffic controllers and to which extent 
they could take over functions presently exploited by the man. Suitable limits for the 
involvement of the available automation technology have to be worked out to ensure that 
safety requirements are always met. The division of responsibilities between pilot and 
controller could also change significantly. In particular, the operations in and around 
airports will be greatly affected by the introduction of new technologies which will enable 
a greater efficiency in traffic flow, but will also require a new assessment of human 
responsibilities. 
2.4. Aircraft Systems 
The future^ATM system considers the aircraft as an integral part of the whole and will rely 
heavily on the aircraft systems fitted. Flight Management Systems (FMS) will have to be 
coupled with GNSS receivers and ATN routers to perform ADS functions, to compute the 
most convenient flight path, negotiate with the ground control and then comply with 4D 
055app4.96 2 
contracts for those parts of airspace where this will be needed; but also to decide whether 
free flight can be carried out and, if so, where. 
2.5. ATM Support Systems 
As in the case of many other complex systems the future ATM system will have to cater 
for the processing of a large amount of data, in real time for some applications, over 
homogenous areas certainly bigger than today's national airspaces. This can only be 
achieved by the introduction of ATM Support Systems to gather, process and distribute the 
data for surveillance, flight planning, meteorological reporting and forecasting, civil/military 
information exchange, airport/ATC/Airline Operational Centre (AOC) interconnection and 
to support the necessary computer assistance (automation) tools. 
2.6. Communications 
Communications between the ground and the air in the future system will be characterised 
by the silent mode of data transfer, implying a diminution of the use of traditional voice 
communications: routine traffic would instead rely on data transmission (datalink) leaving 
voice conversations for non-standard or specific situations. Ground-to-ground 
communications will be through an Aeronautical Telecommunication Network (ATN) using 
Open System Interconnection (OSI). 
2.7. Navigation 
The development and enhancement of navigation systems is aimed essentially at obtaining 
the most cost-effective solutions to meet the levels of safety, integrity and performance 
necessary for aircraft operations particularly under the conditions of high traffic density 
within European airspace. It will start with the introduction of Area Navigation, both Basic 
and Precision RNAV in 3D, followed by moves to 4D systems to obtain further gains in 
ATM system capacity and runway utilisation using Global Navigation Satellite Systems 
(GNSS) initially as a supplementary means of navigation, with the aircraft relying on on­
board inertial or ground based navigation systems as a primary navigation system; later as 
a primary means, although there might be a need for a secondary navigation system for 
safety/redundancy reasons. 
2.8. Surveillance 
For surveillance, the objective is to integrate and distribute all means (primary and 
secondary radars and Automatic Dependent Surveillance (ADS)) through data fusion 
techniques, so that an improved picture results. The situation over the oceans and over 
terrain unsuitable for radar (where ADS based satellite systems are the only ones available) 
should be distinguished from other land areas where there will continue to be extensive 
radar coverage for the foreseeable future. The benefits of E-scan antennas deriving from 
military applications will need to be assessed. 
2.9. Validation 
The validation of new concepts and features for the Air Traffic Management System 
requires the performance of a number of exercises such as simulations and large scale, real 
time demonstrations of the envisaged functions and procedures, with various degrees of 
integration into a real environment. The validation strategy will plan, define and carry out 
055app4.96 3 
^3 
the validation exercises to ensure that the technical components, resources and data required 
to run a validation exercise are available and work properly together to support an efficient 
implementation. It shall also integrate the analysis of human factors linked with the use of 
these new concepts and features and assess their acceptability in an operational environment. 
3. The European Commission's RTD activities in the near future 
The Air Transport part of the Transport RTD programme builds on results of the 2nd 
Frame Work Programme (EURET), and is mainly addressing ATM, but contains also tasks 
on air transport safety, environment protection and airport operations. Those related to 
ATM and airport management were defined in the framework of the ECARDA initiative 
with a total available budget of about 33 MECU. 
As a result of the first Call for Proposal of the 4th F.P. in March 1995 for the part on 
ATM 13 projects were selected for which the Community will spend a total of 11 MECU. 
They address ATM functional architecture requirements, system modelling, simulation and 
overall validation , the human/system roles and the advanced automation. 
The requirements and operational implications for Communication Navigation and 
Surveillance (CNS) will be covered in the next two Calls together with some other tasks 
covering further the domains of the first Call. 
The tasks related to the airport operations are addressing airport design, management issues 
such as the different kinds of traffic flows within airports and the interface between airport 
management and control systems on the one hand, and ATM on the other. Modelling and 
simulation techniques will be developed, where appropriate, in order to define the system 
requirements and high-level functional architecture of an Airport Movement Guidance 
Control and Management System and will lead to a Demonstration exercise to validate the 
safety, capacity, environment and efficiency benefits. The research will include an 
examination of the impact of alternative operational strategies on the capacity and level of 
service of European airports. The proposal selection of the first Call led to 4 projects 
which will receive a total Community contribution of around 6 MECU. 
The activities identified above will define the elements of the future system developing the 
appropriate components and technologies and starting the process of validating their 
contribution to the future system through demonstration. 
This validation process of the overall system will continue into the 5th FP. The 
progressive implementation of validated elements of the future system into existing systems 
will bring progressive capacity improvements and could be supported amongst the initiatives 
envisaged in the Trans-european Transport Network (TENS-T). 
Within the Industrial and Material Technology RTD Programme some 230 MECU will be 
utilized for Aeronautics activities of which around 25 MECU will be devoted to the 
improvement of the airborne side of the future ATM system. 
In the March 1995 Call for Proposals at least three projects have amongst their objectives 
the definition of improved on-board systems to be integrated in the future CNS/ATM 
environment. For other projects the links with ATM are of lesser importance but will 
certainly be of relevance. 
In the first activity it will be performed the development of a demonstrator for an Advanced 
Flight Management System compatible with future European CNS /ATM environment, 
055app4.96 4 
still 
including flight plan negotiation and 4D planning/guidance, the role of the crew as the 
manager of the airborne part of the future ATM system, the ovearall system integrity and 
user oriented functionality and cost-effectiveness. 
Another project aims at the demonstration of a system enabling the safe continuation of 
aircraft operations in poor weather at a wide range of airfields with under-equipped 
runways. The solution is based on the use of emerging technologies like Enhanced Vision 
Systems (EVS) based on fusion of sensors and database, or Synthetic Vision Systems (SVS) 
based on precise positioning of aircraft and database. 
The reduction of separations of aircraft in the landing phase to overcome one of the capacity 
limiting factors of the future ATM system is amongst the objectives on another RTD 
activity. In fact these separations are imposed by the hazards to the following aircraft—"-
created by the wake vortices of the preceding aircraft. This can be achieved by airborne 
multifunction equipment not only for wake vortex detection but also for dry windshear 
predictive detection, clear air turbulence, volcanic ash, gust alleviation, etc. 
Amongst the projects that are less directly connected to the ATM environment it is worth 
mentioning one on advanced avionics aiming at defining and validating a demonstrator of 
a generic scalable computing architecture which would be used as a general purpose multi-
applications computing platform into avionics providing i.a. CNS/ATM functionalities. 
For the Transport Telematics sector of the Telematics Application RTD programme, about 
60% of the budget will be committed as a result of the 1995 Call for Proposals which 
closed in March. The timetable for subsequent calls is not decided. It is intended to commit 
approximately 20 MECU for Air Transport projects in '95, with a further 14 MECU to be 
secured for those actions at a later date. Member States have been given an indication that 
some 25% of the total budget will be spent on Air Transport in the course of the 
programme. 
Following the mentioned Call for Proposals , covering all topics of the Workprogramme, 
14 proposals were selected for funding on Communications, Navigation and Surveillance, 
Airports,Controller Tools, Airborne Air Traffic Management Functions. 
As in the case of the other Specific Programmes, the projects selected continue previous 
work funded through the second Framework Programme or through preparatory actions. 
The focus is on the provision of surveillance data through the integration of communications 
and navigation technology and experimentation with satellite navigation systems. The use 
of two-way data links and the integration with the Aeronautical Telecommunications 
Network are addressed as well as the experiments with the use of self-organising TDMA. 
Application of communication, navigation and surveillance technology to presently unserved 
airspace is also considered. The development of GNSS-1 is supported in multimodal 
projects. These demonstrate the exploitation of GNSS-1 by various user segments, including 
aviation and the possible transition to GNSS-2. 
Within the Airports domain the intention is to obtain a demonstrator of an advanced surface 
movement guidance and control system, improving traffic flow at airports. Projects 
currently supported represent partial solutions, addressing one. a guidance system and 
protection against intrusion, while the other will investigate the problems of surveillance 
data fusion at airports. 
055app4.96 5 
SI si $ 
When addressing the Controller Tools several different aspects of the controller's task are 
considered in attempts to improve traffic handling. A task closely related to the airports 
work described above, will provide tools to assist planning and management of ground 
movements, while another will similarly support the tower and en-route controller. 
The airborne functions will become relatively more important in future air traffic 
management systems and the development of airborne air traffic management functions is 
covered.The possible integration of future airborne collision avoidance systems and 
ground-biised short term conflict alert is also addressed. 
Within the ECARDA context, future work in Transport Telematics will seek to complete 
the airports systems demonstrator, improve airborne situation awareness and explore the 
need for a next generation of navigation satellites (GNSS-2). Further work will also be done 
on overall system architecture and the possible user benefits to be obtained from increased 
integration of traffic management, self-organising TDM A and other communications, airport 
and airline operational systems. 
Conclusions 
The outcome of the research will support pre-normative, pre-legislative activities, leading 
to international standardisation and prepare the implementation of the operational system 
satisfying user needs for safety, capacity and efficiency as well as environmental demands. 
The RTD activities mainly performed by consortia of different organisations (industry, 
research centres, university, airlines, etc.) coming from all European Member States to 
further the definition of the future ATM system, will bring improvements through the cross-
fertilisation of different European working styles and environments, resulting in an overall 
increase of technical knowledge and awareness, forming a solid background to face the 
world-wide competition, not only for industry, but also for other actors'performing research 
activities which more and more need to be on the "leading edge". 
The efforts undertaken following the ECARDA initiative that led to the RTD action in the 
4th Framework Programme will have to be carried on and improved by means of the above-
mentioned continuous co-ordination process, having Member States directly involved to 
monitor and advise, together with EUROCONTROL, in planning following phases. 
Three main strands for action can be identified as a result of the monitoring, advising and 
planning functions : indication for further RTD action, selection for RTD results to be put 
into operation, with the resulting infrastructure projects or standardization activities. 
055app4.96 6 
ISSN 0254-1475 
COM(96) 57 final 
DOCUMENTS 
EN 07 
Catalogue number : CB-CO-96-104-EN-C 
ISBN 92-78-01347-1 
Office for Official Publications of the European Communities 
L-2985 Luxembourg