EUROCONTROL, the air traffic overlord, is calling for greater industry co-operation to tackle a mounting industry capacity crisis. In a bold demonstration of practicing what it preaches the Brussels-based organisation staged a joint briefing in London last week with Airports Council International (ACI) highlighting the problem. By 2020, Europe is expected to see a doubling in air traffic, up to 16m flights a year, carrying over 1.5bn passengers. Contrary to perception delays caused by air traffic control in Europe were maintained at low levels, with an average of 1.9 minutes per flight. ”In order to handle safely and efficiently the levels of traffic we will face in 2020, we need to begin working now to build a pan-European network of air navigation services, airports, airlines and airspace users whose evolution is planned and designed to meet traffic loads,” said V”ctor M. Aguado, director general of Eurocontrol. According to Roy Griffins, his opposite number at ACI, Europe faces an airport capacity crunch by 2020 with 20 major airports totally saturated and a further 20 congested. None of the projections really take into account the introduction of the light-jet executive aircraft that are currently being promoted and require airways operation rather than their mostly vfr predecessors they replace. At the opposite end of the spectrum little is being done about encouraging airlines to increase the average passenger load per flight.
http://www.aci-europe.org
http://www.eurocontrol.be