EU transport ministers have agreed to accelerate the implementation of a single European sky, giving the project the "highest political priority".
The statement was made yesterday at the extraordinary meeting held in Brussels to agree on measures to be taken by EU member states following the ash crisis.
The ministers agreed on "concrete" action to be taken in coming weeks.
A single European sky would mean air route networks would be based on traffic flows, rather than national borders.
It would also increase the efficiency of air traffic management, according to Eurocontrol, the European organisation for the safety of air navigation.
There was little movement over air passenger rights, however. Ministers at the meeting stated the current regulations remain fully applicable, but said they would draw on the lessons of the crisis when the legislation came up for review later this year.
In the mean time, the European Commission (EC) will work with national authorities to ensure the rules are applied in a uniform way, said ministers.
As for state aid, it was agreed that the exceptional circumstances "may also justify support measures to offset losses incurred by the closure of the EU airspace", but that any steps taken would need to "preserve a level playing field".
Siim Kallas, vice president of the EC, responsible for transport, said: "Let's be clear about one thing. This is going to continue to happen. It might be next week. It might be in 20 years. But it will happen again; and volcanoes do not obey rules. So we need to be faster and more flexible in our response."
According to Kallas, a single European sky, with a single regulator, would mean a much faster co-ordinated response in a crisis. "Major elements of the single sky package will be in place by end-2010, including a crisis cell," he said.
Kallas warned the crisis has "exposed structural weaknesses in the ability of different European transport modes to substitute for each other".
He called for member states to build pan-European transport systems, so when a crisis occurs different modes of transport can ease the pressure. "The status quo is not good enough," said Kallas.
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