The Joint Declaration enables ATCA and FABEC to work more closely together to better understand the disruptive factors that impact air traffic control and support the provision of more resilient, efficient, environmentally responsible, and scalable airspace management services.
Functional Airspace Block Europe Central (FABEC) air navigation service providers and the Air Traffic Control Association (ATCA) signed a Joint Declaration at the ATCA Global Conference & Expo 7-9 November 2022 to confirm a long-standing partnership that sees know-how and experience are shared at an operational level to help meet industry challenges.
FABEC air navigation service providers (ANSPs) managing some of Europe’s most complex airspace face much the same challenges as their US counterparts serving dense airspace areas and busy skies. Both continents are facing the same circumstances amongst others unpredictable demand, climate change and geopolitical upheaval. By sharing knowledge at an operational level, both parties benefit from solutions and innovative practices. ATCA President and CEO, Brian Bruckbauer said, “We have identified five key areas that are vitally important to all airspace users, with both ATCA and FABEC working hard to identify solutions, I am confident our efforts will be beneficial for airspace users worldwide.”
FABEC CEO Board of ANSPs Chair, John Santurbano said: “Broadening our knowledge and hearing from other providers helps us to add value to our services. The Joint Declaration between ATCA and FABEC facilitates more direct communications and supports operational improvements on both sides of the Atlantic.”
The Joint Declaration enables ATCA and FABEC to work more closely together to better understand the disruptive factors that impact air traffic control and support the provision of more resilient, efficient, environmentally responsible, and scalable airspace management services. Sharing operational knowledge brings practical results that directly benefit airspace users. The Declaration covers five key areas:
- Safety: Safety remains the priority focus for ATCA and FABEC.
- Operations: To understand which systems perform well under different conditions, identify solutions that add useful functions in a digitised environment, compare practices and procedures to optimise performance.
- Environment and climate change: To support the EU Green Deal and comply with the US environmental policy and guidance material, ATM services providers aim to better understand emissions, performance and responsibilities.
- Training: ATCA and FABEC will share data on the improvement of training courses for controllers.
Emerging challenges: ATCA and FABEC are aiming to exchange on emerging challenges such as the resilience of air traffic management or the arrival of new communities of airspace users including such as unmanned vehicles, rockets or supersonic business jets may impacting operations.
Deeper cooperation between ATCA and FABEC will help to develop successful solutions and to introduce more resilient and efficient services in response to changing market conditions. Facing these challenges collectively is an important way to prepare for continued uncertainty going forward.
The Air Traffic Control Association (ATCA) has been from the outset dedicated to progress in the science of air traffic control and the preservation of a safe flight environment. Those in the aviation community – the providers of air traffic control, system architects, manufacturers, suppliers, system operators and users – join together in ATCA to share their collective experience, knowledge, and efforts in pursuit of common goals.
The airspace of the six FABEC States of Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland is one of the busiest and most complex in the world. The majority of the major European airports, major civil airways and military training areas are located in this area. FABEC airspace covers 1.7 million km² and handles about 55% of European air traffic. Winner of the ATM 2020 Research, Innovation and Environment Award.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
