Ask any British business traveller why his aircraft was delayed and something in the order of nine out of ten people will reply that they thought it was due to air traffic control. In the US the response to the same question is usually ”the weather”.
In fact neither is correct. According to figures put out by Eurocontrol only 15% of delays are caused by the official title ”En route delays”. In July 2004 the airlines themselves were responsible for 53% of lost time, airports 18%, weather 4% and security 4%. To be fair to the airlines the delays can be caused by a whole multitude of events, from delays at check-in and the gate, late luggage or catering, or perhaps the slowness of the cleaning team where the cabin is not tidied up. Cockpit and cabin staff have been known to report in late too. Or not even show up.
The average delay per movement for departing traffic for all causes of delay over the last four months was almost 11 minutes, 43% of all flights delayed and 19% more than 15 minutes. According to Eurocontrol 11% of services left their stand before their scheduled time. The statistics show that 18% of flights were more than 15 minutes late on arrival and astonishingly 22% landed early. They then had to taxi and disembark.
Eurocontrol, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, is an international organisation with 34 member states. Employing 2,000 people, headquartered in impressive premises just outside Brussels International Airport it is not a member of the European Commission, rather the other way around. The EU is one of 11 affiliated organisations. The European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) comprises of 41 countries, the difference made up by certain states, such as Estonia, whose civil aviation status has still to be ratified, more of a paperwork problem than of practicalities. Interestingly enough Norway, Switzerland Turkey and Ukraine, non-members of the EU, are fully active within Eurocontrol.
To put the whole thing into perspective a record number of 29,500 flights took place within the Eurocontrol area on 10 September. When compared with July 2003 traffic throughout the ECAC region increased by 5% to almost 820,000 flights. Over the last five years delays have reduced by 80% whilst traffic has risen by 12%. What is very evident is the ever-increasing growth of passenger aircraft movements in Eastern Europe, traffic increasing by nearly 50% over this relatively short term.
Last week Victor Agudao, director general of Eurocontrol (left) invited members of the media to listen, learn and ask questions on the progress of this vital organisation. There are presently something in the order of 70 air traffic control centres in Europe employing 16,000 people. Trying to reduce this number, even by a small margin, is proving more difficult than originally expected for very good technical reasons. Accidents at Linate in October 2001 and over Uberlingen had brought sharply under focus the work of the organisation and its recipe for the future. Traffic is expected to double by 2022. Eurocontrol is fully aware of this statistic and believes that its investment will further reduce the accident rate as the years go by, typically with the implementation of Link 200+, the ability for pilots to see on their cockpit management screens the actual instructions given out by air traffic controllers. Listening in to a variety of voices in so-called English is far from easy. Currently this supplement to voice communications covers 25% of all flights. The target is 75% by 2007 and full implementation by the end of the decade. It can be compared with email taking over from the telephone. The original system still exists and will not be replaced.
As with everyone else security is on the mind of Eurocontrol. On 9/11 250 aircraft were over the North Atlantic. They all had to be dealt with. Eurocontrol has an ad hoc group studying all the aspects of a possible future highjack situation which is working closely with NATO, ICAO, ECAC and other interested parties. A former RAF BAC-111 has been pressed into service as a trials aircraft. In some ways just as vital is Eurocontrol”s first airport environment improvement programme. Eurocontrol believes that savings can be made by making use of a continuous descent approach concept rather than the stepped approach in common use. Better use of airspace could eliminate 5,000 transatlantic flights over a 12-month period. The organisation is very aware of problems concerning global warning and greenhouse gases and is providing considerable sums for research. Good air traffic management is seen as a significant player in this area.
http://www.eurocontrol.be