by David McMillan *








The focus of this edition of Skyway is on safety – the number one priority in aviation. We will be looking at this from the perspective of air traffic management and support to regulation, providing you with the latest information on our programmes and initiatives, as well as giving the floor to the European Commission Directorate responsible for Transport, and the Flight Safety Foundation.

And I cannot but mention the recent crisis caused by the eruption of the Eyiafjallajökull volcano in Iceland, when European Member States decided to close their airspace in order to ensure the safety of all passengers, as a result of the ash cloud covering large parts of our continent.

The impact of this on European aviation has been unprecedented and has had repercussions around the world. Over 100,000 flights were cancelled across Europe, costing the airline industry over one billion euros, and millions of passengers were affected.

In the face of the ash-plume crisis a coordinated response was developed, agreed and put in place as it became immediately clear that European regulators needed a new approach to a problem that was shutting down the skies over Europe.

EUROCONTROL's expertise was instrumental in working with all parties concerned to safely get traffic moving again and help make sure that all the technical insights into the ash plume were shared. In close coordination with the European Commission and the Spanish Presidency of the European Union, we hosted a teleconference with experts, Member States and air navigation service providers. This meeting was in preparation for the emergency EU Transport Council which took place on 19 April and approved the implementation of a revised approach
to air traffic affected by the volcanic ash cloud.

The operational impact of the eruption has passed for now, but much follow-up work remains and we are already looking forward and seeing how the aviation community can learn from this experience.

In many ways, the crisis has highlighted why the approach set out in the Single European Sky II legislation is so important. We need a coordinated response to situations such as this – not only at political level but also at technical level. We need a strong, central, network management capability that can both respond to such situations and plan for future problems.

The momentum is there and this opportunity should be seized to move forward with the implementation of the Single European Sky.


* David McMillan, Director General Eurocontrol


Source and permission of  Eurocontrol