| Air travel in Europe is set to become safer following recent EU legislation. A single air traffic control system for Europe's congested skies is on the way. As part of this system, thanks to MEPs, civil flights should benefit from civil-military cooperation on air traffic management. Under separate legislation, EU Member States will have to inspect aircraft from non-EU countries if they suspect the planes pose a safety risk. Following pressure from the European Parliament, clear and easily-understood information on the safety records of foreign airlines flying to the EU must be made available to the public.
Europe's air traffic control system, dating back to the 1960s, is highly fragmented. Flights have to pass through various air traffic control "blocks", often using different technologies and national procedures. A flight from Rome to Brussels crosses nine different airspace blocks, being handed over from one air traffic control centre to another. This system leads to bottlenecks - one flight in every five is now affected by delays - and forces aircraft to consume more fuel. More importantly, it is being stretched to its safety limits because of the constant growth in European air traffic. The spotlight was turned on Europe's air traffic control system following the mid-air collision of two aircraft near Lake Constance in Germany in July 2002, in which 71 people died.
The current system of European airspace also includes many military zones, which cannot be used by civil airlines. A flight from Berlin to Madrid cannot take a straight path but has to make a big detour to avoid flying through large areas of military airspace in Germany and France. Such detours are thought to waste 350,000 flying hours every year.
The Single European Sky
New legislation, set to come into force at the end of 2004, aims to streamline this fragmented airspace into a "Single European Sky" governed by standard principles and rules. The upper airspace over the European Union will be divided into a limited number of "functional" airspace blocks based on operational requirements regardless of national frontiers. This should help to achieve smoother air traffic flows, making the whole system safer and more efficient. And it is hoped the measures will lead to new technical and operational solutions, including greater compatibility of equipment.
Neighbouring non-EU countries will be allowed to join the Single European Sky project in future, as any extension of this unified airspace can only enhance the safety of Europe's skies.
Meeting the needs of civil and military users
To achieve a more flexible and efficient use of European airspace, the Commission proposed that military routes should be partially opened up to civil aircraft. MEPs also believed that, without close cooperation between the civil and military air sectors, the Single European Sky would never become a reality. However, the Member States strongly opposed the inclusion of civil-military cooperation in the legislation, arguing that defence issues were not a matter for the EU and that Member States should retain exclusive rights over their military airspace. This proved to be one of the thorniest issues during the legislative negotiations between Parliament and the Council. But thanks to the persistence of MEPs, the Member States finally agreed to improve civil-military cooperation and encourage cooperation between their armed forces on air traffic management.
Safety of non-EU aircraft
Another piece of legislation, due to come into force in 2006, aims to protect air travellers and people living near airports from the dangers of aircraft which fall short of international safety standards. Member States will have to carry out uniform safety checks on non-EU aircraft landing in the Community and swap key information. Non-EU aircraft using airports in the Member States will have to undergo inspections if they are suspected of not complying with the safety standards. Any plane found to be dangerous will be grounded, and a Member State may decide to ban the operator from its airports in future. Member States will have to notify the Commission and the other Member States when an inspection reveals safety shortcomings or a potential safety threat from such an aircraft. Parliament amended the rules so that Member States will also be able to carry out spot-checks - on a non-discriminatory basis - even if there are no particular grounds for suspicion.
MEPs also fought hard to prevent the Council from watering down the Commission's powers to take Community-wide action against foreign operators which do not meet the safety standards. Thanks to their efforts, if a Member State informs the Commission that it has banned a particular airline from its airports, the Commission will be able to extend this ban to the whole of the EU.
Naming and shaming
Would the passengers returning to France from their Christmas holidays in Egypt on 3 January this year have boarded the ill-fated 'Air Flash' flight if they had known that the airline had been banned from Switzerland in 2002? The aircraft crashed into the Red Sea shortly after taking off from the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing 148 people. Until now, European governments have published very little information about bans imposed on passenger airlines but this is set to change with the adoption of the new rules.
The Commission will keep a record of all information gleaned from the inspections carried out in the Member States, which it will analyse in an annual report. MEPs were concerned that this information, which can be highly technical, should be presented in such a way as to be useful for passengers wanting to know about an air carrier's safety record. Because of their efforts, the information in the Commission's report will be simple and easy to understand, and will indicate whether there are any increased safety risks to air travellers using foreign carriers. It is hoped this will lead to a 'name and shame' procedure for unsafe airlines.
Fear of flying?
Projections show that air travel is set to increase ever more in the next decade. The new EU legislation has laid the foundations for minimising delays, making Europe's skies safer and ensuring that passengers can make more informed choices about the airlines they travel with in an increasingly liberalised air transport sector.
|
