WRITTEN QUESTION E-0126/98

by Petrus Cornelissen (PPE) to the Commission

(30 January 1998)

Subject: Optimal use of airspace

1. Can the Commission confirm that delays in civil aviation have been increasing recently and that this gives grounds for concern?

2. Does the Commission agree that new arrangements for sharing the use of air space between military and civil aviation can help improve civil aviation planning?

3. Is it true that progress in this respect has been very difficult in the Member States of the European Union, despite the encouraging evidence of military détente?

4. If the answers to the foregoing questions are "yes", will the Commission examine how it can help introduce new arrangements for optimal use of air space given the increasing delays and the ever-increasing volume of civil aviation?

Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission

(25 March 1998)

Statistics provided by Eurocontrol, with analysis focused on summer periods which are usually the most congested of the year, demonstrate a worsening in air traffic delays from 1995 to 1997. The average air traffic growth over these periods was constant at 5 % per year. However, the cumulated delays increased by 19 % from 1995 to 1996 and again by 7 % from 1996 to 1997.

Despite the negative trends, the Central Flow Management Unit (CFMU)(1), which has provided air traffic flow management (ATFM) services throughout the airspace of European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) states since March 1996, did produce a smoother flow of traffic through congested areas and a more equitable distribution of delay to flights and that resulted in better use of available capacity. The increase in the number of aircraft delayed (+35 % between 1995 and 1996 and 12 % between 1996 and 1997), was consequently accompanied by a decrease in the average time of delay for those aircraft (respectively -12 % and -5 %).

Statistics also show improvement in the capacity of the ATM system, particularly from 1996 to 1997 (+6 %), which contributed to limiting the growth of cumulated delays.

The primary cause of congestion is the lack of system capacity both on the ground (airports) and in the air (air traffic control sectors). Additional causes include weather, operations and withdrawals for technical reasons or because of industrial action. Inflexible airspace structures and airspace reservations, mainly for military reasons, may also contribute to delays.

The need for improved airspace management in Europe has long been recognised. In 1992, Eurocontrol established a first set of principles for the proper use of airspace leading to the definition and adoption of the concept, supported by the North Atlantic treaty organization (NATO), of the flexible use of airspace (FUA) within the ECAC area. The basis of the concept is that airspace should no longer be exclusively allocated to either military or civil use but should be considered as one continuum used flexibly to satisfy the needs of all users on a real time basis.

The FUA concept is being implemented progressively at national level by the ECAC states and it is expected to provide significant benefits for civil airspace users, although not without difficulties.

The Commission has already expressed its policy recommendations on this matter in the July 1995 Communication on Congestion and Crisis in Air Traffic(2) and in the March 1996 White Paper "Freeing Europe's airspace"(3). One of the Commission's conclusions was that "It would be more efficient to manage the military/civil uses of Europe's airspace on a collective basis, based on legal commitments which guarantee both an equitable access to the airspace for military needs and the safeguarding of the national defence requirements of individual countries".

As the Honourable Member will know, the Community's legal competence does not extend to issues such as the use of airspace for military purposes. Nevertheless, the Commission does support and conseqently advocate the creation of a collective system for managing the whole of European airspace, as has been done in the case of the CFMU for regulating air traffic flows. Such a system could ensure the allocation of airspace to its various users, civil and military, on the basis of commonly agreed rules that were consistent with all relevant policies - air transport, environment, defence - and not only related to limited national considerations.

The continuing expansion of demand for air travel, the increase in traffic, the chronic persistence of delays, the economic and environmental costs of such delays, the interests of operatiors, the serious problems caused to passengers, and considerations of safety in the future, all ensure that the issues of airspace use and management will warrant constant attention by all of the national, commercial and technical interests. The Commission will therefore maintain its efforts to secure improvements and, wherever legally possible, press for changes that would achieve better performance and reduced delays.

(1) Flow management measures consist of delaying the take-off time of aircraft to ensure that air traffic flows from airports match the available en-route capacity, or of re-routing flights.

(2) COM(95) 318 final.

(3) COM(96) 57 final.