European ATM Blasted Again
On 04/05/2012, in Viewpoint, by steve
One of the many yardsticks you can use to measure the passage of time is the frequency you encounter air traffic management experts who stare at you as if you were from the moon when you mention EATCHIP or ATM2000+. Yes, there is a whole new generation of experts working at the air navigation service providers (ANSP) who have never, or hardly ever, heard of those flagship projects which were supposed to save European ATM in the 80s and 90s.
Then there are ANSP managers, who pretend that they have never heard of them. They are the ones who whine and cry saying that the targets being set by the European Commission as part of the Single European Sky (SES) legislation are too ambitious and they cannot be achieved in the short time available.
These managers act as if they had to start from scratch. As if the initial aims of SES were not in fact just an incremental improvement over what the ANSPs have, supposedly, already achieved as part of the ATM2000+ project. At least I cannot recall any of them having said that ATM2000+ was a failure and that they had done mighty little.
ATM2000+ was a failure of course simply because no agreement could be reached on anything while each ANSP was busy protecting their turf…
The EC was triggered to intervene by this exact failure. They let loose the FAB concept and SES I and when both faltered, SES II. The longer term future was to be assured by SESAR.
With all this heavy artillery you would think European ATM was finally home free. No way!
Click here to read the full article
The FAB Saga. 2012 Edition.
On 02/04/2012, in FAB News, by steve
2012 is a significant year for the European Functional Airspace Blocks (FAB). Namely, they must all be fully operational by December this year. All nine of them. Let’s have a quick look at these things to get a good overview of their status and impact.
First and foremost I think one needs to clarify that if the words ”fully operational” as applied to the FABs in this context were to be used to describe an aircraft, we would see engineering drawings pasted onto old and creaky desks and little more.
Each FAB is in fact an entity composed of two or more ANSPs who have banded together mainly on political grounds. The ANSPs in each FAB have had a horribly difficult time forging agreements amongst themselves and most of the time work focused on political and financial issues with little attention to really substantial operational improvements. Work on how the FABs themselves will cooperate with each other across Europe has hardly started. Now these new fortresses of ANSP might must submit their plans to the European Commission by 24 June so that airspace users and other stakeholders may comment on them. With most of Europe going on holidays in July and August, stakeholder comments are unlikely to be available before the end of September (and then I am being extremely charitable). So, the FABs will have all of two months to implement those plans or if they do it earlier, it will be tantamount to ignoring stakeholder comments. Where have we seen that before?
This whole FAB craze is of course a questionable thing that is likely to turn out to be the most expensive flop yet… until SESAR flops but that is still some way down the road.
Click here to read the full article
Commission Report Puts the Lie to Claims that ATM is in Great Shape
On 26/11/2011, in SESAR's Palace, by cleo
Regular readers of Roger-Wilco know that we have been sounding alarm bells over the European ATM situation and the even brighter future that some reports would make us believe is just around the corner. We did not make many friends with this kind of reporting… of course. It is much nicer to believe that all is well even when the plane is crashing. But we were not reporting unfounded facts. Our sources are better than most…
And now a press release from the European Commission finally brings to light just how bad the situation really is.
The “traffic light” assessments published today by the Commission – based on two progress reports – highlight serious cause for concern in relation to two major elements which go to the heart of the Single European Sky project: the performance scheme and the functional airspace blocks.
Only 5 out of 27 Member States (Belgium, Denmark, Lithuania, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) get a “green light” and are on track to meet both targets (for cost and capacity/delays) for the period 2012–14. The Commission has issued recommendations asking Member States to revise these targets. If necessary the Commission could adopt a binding decision requesting the Member State(s) concerned to implement specific corrective measures, although a short time remains available for the targets to be met without recourse to this action.
Existing plans by Member States would fail to meet the EU-wide capacity target of 0.5 minute delay per flight in 2014. If this target were achieved, some €920 million would be saved over 2012–14 due to fewer and shorter delays.
In addition, national performance plans would miss the EU-wide target for ATM cost efficiency by 2.4% in 2014. This would have a a major impact, both on airspace users and on the credibility of the Single European Sky. To meet the target, additional measures are needed to achieve a €250 million saving over the entire three-year reference period (2012–14).
Well, this is not exactly the bright picture that States and ANSPs would want the industry to see. Keep in mind also that all this is happening after the failure of EATCHIP and ATM2000+. I hope you are not going to say now that SESAR will be different. SESAR may be but the rest of the environment is not….
But there is more.
The great Functional Airspace Block fiasco.
Click here to read the full article
EUROCONTROL cancels CDM group meeting
On 12/10/2011, in CDM, by steve
When the mail arrived announcing that EUROCONTROL was cancelling the upcoming CDM group meeting due to severe cuts in their budget, I was not really surprised. This was almost expected as part of what appears to be the killing off of EUROCONTROL. That the CDM group was one of the more successful activities was of course not enough to save the meeting.
Since the announcement, scores of posts appeared on various LinkedIn groups, most of them critical of the decision and regretting this short-sighted action. At least one commenter “reassured” us that this was the way the future will go, the stakeholders want to scale back EUROCONTROL and the ANSPs will take over the coordination of things.
In all the rightful indignation we should not forget a few additional interesting facts that all have a bearing on what is happening to EUROCONTROL to-day. Since I have been there from pretty early on, sharing the time as an ANSP rep and later as an IATA rep, I do have a peculiar perspective which I would like to share with you. Why are these facts important? Because by recognizing them we can hopefully design more effective remedies. So here goes:
1. EUROCONTROL was not perfect. BUT it had many excellent projects, truly forward looking initiatives most of which were consistently slowed down or killed by the stakeholders. I have been in many high level meetings where things got hammered for no other reason but that one or more big ANSPs were not ready to do “it”. Believe it or not, air/ground digital link work in the early phases would have been killed had we not organized a very strong protest… There are more examples.
2. There has been a wrestling match between EUROCONTROL and the EC for a long time. Things got a bit more balanced when the EC burned their fingers in the initial FAB and SES activity caused by the same reluctant stakeholders who were keeping EUROCONTROL from performing properly.
3. It is an open secret that there are certain ANSPs in Europe who have maintained for a long time that they could do a better job of ATM than EUROCONTROL does, being especially critical of the CFMU. The current financial squeeze is not the first initiative to kill EUROCONTROL (but is probably the most effective yet).
4. Giving EUROCONTROL the role of Network Manager is a smokescreen and an incredible affront to the industry. Since EUROCONTROL does not get any additional powers to make things happen (so it will be nothing like the Command Centre in the US), it will be a toothless tiger… Possibly in a few years time it will be established that EUROCONTROL is not being very effective as the Network Manager, so it can disappear completely. Clever… Click here to read the full article
BLUE MED FAB Newsletter No. 3
On 15/08/2011, in FAB News, by steve
In case you were wondering what folks are doing inside a FAB, help is at hand in the form of the BLUE MED FAB Newsletter No. 3.
With EUROCONTROL now having been officially appointed as the Network Manager, there is the inevitable interview with Joe Sultana, the boss of EUROCONTROL’s Directorate Network Management. Then an interview with Patrick Ky about SESAR is followed by news of the Malta Free Route real time simulation and the BLUE MED OLDI real time simulation. Perhaps it is surprising to have a free route and an OLDI RTS being reported on alongside each other… OLDI is old and should have been replaced by SYSCO long ago. But the newsletter, to its credit, discusses frankly how the legacy systems in the BLU MED FAB area are trying to co-operate for best effect and how they are looking forward to the time when SESAR will bring the long awaited changes.
You will also read about the events at the 5th meeting of the BLUE MED FAB Governing Body Meeting where Dr. Georg Jarzembowsky, the European Commission’s Coordinator for the FAB initiatives and the Single European Sky reassured the participants that the implementation of FABs is a key element of the Single European Sky legislation and of the European Union’s transportation policy.
Click the picture to download the newsletter.
When is a FAB not a FAB?
On 09/08/2011, in FAB News, by cleo
We have written quite a lot about the Functional Airspace Blocks (FAB), their dangers and their impact on SESAR.
Although these days most everything is claimed to be happening in the context of the various FABs, the picture is far from ideal. It is not unusual to hear in meetings or in discussions with various ANSP reps that this or that subject is very “sensitive” in their FAB and one should be careful mentioning it. Of course it would have been naïve to think that States who were less than exemplary in working together under the EUROCONTROL umbrella would suddenly turn into sheep and cooperate smoothly within the FAB concept. Parochial thinking and the protection of their own turf remain in place and it will take long and hard work to overcome the old reflexes.
But the FAB concept seems to be evolving in a way its inventors probably never intended. You will have noticed in the news the announcement of various co-operation agreements between Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) being created apparently in parallel with the FABs they are participating in. In spite of the nice words of these new alliances, they begged the question right from the start: why? If the FAB is such a great thing and they are already in it, why form an alliance on top of it.
Now we may have the answer…
Click here to read the full article
HungaroControl cooperates with Scandinavian Air Traffic Management academy
On 24/06/2011, in Training world, by steve
The Hungarian air navigation service provider and Entry Point North owned by the Swedish, the Danish and the Norwegian air navigation service providers are opening a joint ATM training academy in Budapest named Entry Point Central. Starting in September 2011, the future generation of Hungarian air traffic controllers will be trained according to the world-class Scandinavian training program and methodology. The new academy will also be open for other air navigation providers.
HungaroControl and Entry Point North have founded a joint venture. This long-term, cross-border partnership has been created with the purpose of increasing the level of initial air traffic controller training in Hungary, with the help of one of Europe’s most renowned ATM training center. In the long term, this partnership will contribute to the development of air navigation services in the region and the improvement of the competitiveness of Functional Airspace Block Central Europe (FAB CE). The first training course will begin in September 2011 with 16 Hungarian students at the joint academy in Budapest, named Entry Point Central.
Click here to read the full article
Should we listen to the jungle telegraph?
On 08/06/2011, in SESAR's Palace, by cleo
Editor’s note: When the material for this article hit my desk, I thought long and hard, pondering what to do with it. Most of what is said in it I have heard also myself and Cleo, the original author is well connected and not given to crying wolf… Having consulted a number of friends, I decided to go ahead and publish it, duly qualifying some of the information as bits off the jungle telegraph. As you know, there is a lot of noise coming off that particular type of telegraph but if you listen carefully, you can learn surprising things. Some of which might even be true.
No ATM person having suffered through EATCHIP and ATM2000+ could wish anything but for SESAR to succeed. There is no plan B and if the European Commission, not to mention the airlines, sees all this money being squandered, there will be hell to pay. Literally…
When you ask people close to the program about how things are going, you will either get a blank stare or a few mumbled words about SESAR being reoriented, project dates slipping, some technical projects having run ahead without the non-technical underpinning having been delivered to them and the need to stop several projects for anything up to a year to get things back on track again. There are strange noises also about a SESAR 2. Mind you, this is on the jungle telegraph and the messages are unsigned.
With just one or two people saying such things one may think it is the normal noise in a complex project. When you have scores of them, it is hard not to take notice. Of course in a project involving so many people and so many organizations, there are bound to be those who always complain. Yet, somehow you get the feeling that there is more to this than meets the eye…
Click here to read the full article
HungaroControl has opened its Centre of Research, Development and Simulation
On 11/05/2011, in Simulator world, by steve
Central-Europe’s only simulation centre is operating under the aegis of HungaroControl from 10th of May in Budapest. The centre, equipped with state of the art technology, was opened by Mr. Pál Völner, Secretary of State responsible for infrastructure, Mr. Joe Sultana, COO of Directorate Network Management of EUROCONTROL (European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation), and Mr. Kornél Szepessy, CEO of HungaroControl (Hungarian Air Navigation Services) in the presence of the leaders of Air Navigation Services in the region. The aim of the Centre of Research, Development and Simulation (CRDS) is to aid the regional cooperation and the establishment of the Single European Sky.
To make European air navigation more effective and competitive, the airspace presently segmented along the borders will be organized into functional airspace blocks within the Single European Sky implementation program. The integration requires unprecedented cooperation from the Air Navigation Service Providers and controllers and it makes changes necessary to numerous procedures and processes, also the shortening of the air navigation routes. HungaroControl’s innovation centre opened today enables the testing of newly developed theoretically secure processes and air traffic controller procedures before their actual usage.
“Hungary does its very best to enhance the establishment of the Single European Sky, and for the successful operation of the Central-European functional air space block, the treaty of which we signed last Thursday together with the countries of the region” – said Mr. Pál Völner Secretary of State responsible for infrastructure on the opening ceremony. “The Hungarian Air Navigation Service Provider invests great efforts in the advancement of the whole Central-European air navigation and the regional cooperation. A great example of this is the CRDS, an innovation centre which is open for all service providers” – added the Secretary of State.
Click here to read the full article
Functional Airspace Blocks (FAB) – The best thing since sliced bread!
On 09/05/2011, in FAB News, by cleo
It is definitive now, FABs are the greatest invention since sliced bread! I mean, what other construct would give European Air Navigation Service Providers the chance to boast about doing things now that they should have done decades ago but failed to because of parochial thinking? It is hard to understand why they were so opposed to the FAB idea when it was first put out by the European Commission… But no problem, FAB has become the new buzz word and the opiate of people with short memories.
Not so long ago, the folks at FAB Europe Central proudly announced that aircraft in their FAB will now fly shorter routes at night as a result of the new and wonderful co-operation between the states concerned. What they forgot to mention was the minor fact that what they did was nothing more than formalizing something air traffic controllers have been doing for decades: giving directs at night. This was not a FAB achievement, just common sense finally prevailing.
But there is more.
Air Traffic Management magazine has just published news of the UK-Ireland Functional Airspace Block Plan for 2011-2014 and the annual report of achievements for 2010, having been released. This FAB is the oldest in Europe in operation since 2008 and by all accounts it is “highly successful”. Well, let’s see…
One of the key elements of the 2011-2014 FAB Plan is ODNET: Optimize Domestic, North Atlantic and European Traffic Flows. Hmm… If I recall correctly, this was also one of the aims of EATCHIP and ATM2000+ though admittedly, not on a UK/Ireland scale. EATCHIP and ATM2000+ were trying to achieve this on a European scale.
Click here to read the full article
Functional Airspace Blocks (FAB) – the EC’s biggest blunder?
On 30/04/2011, in FAB News, by pbn
That the EC meant well when they originally came up with the idea of Functional Airspace Blocks (FAB) is not in question. That they did not anticipate the monster they were creating can be put down to the engaging naivety of someone venturing into the jungle of European air traffic management for the first time. That IATA was blind enough to support the FAB concept shows how desperate they were for a solution, any solution, to the continued ills of ATM.
As we head towards a summer promising to be vary bad in terms of delays and in the midst of the general euphoria about FABs and ANSP alliances, it should be interesting to look into the history of the FAB idea and its present reality. If for no other reason then to learn why it will not bring the improvements the industry craves.
Those amongst you with the longest memory will recall EATCHIP and ATM2000+ the two European flagship air traffic management projects which dragged on for years and in spite of Ministers of Transport signatures on the ATM2000+ documents, they delivered very little. We suffered through meeting after meeting, all kinds of new groups were created but in the end, when it came to implementation the deadlines always seemed to slip to a date comfortably in the future. Comfortably for the service providers and frustratingly for the airspace users. Europe was treading water and the industry did not drawn but this was in spite of ATM2000+ rather than because of it.
The European Commission was taking an increasing interest in the problems of air traffic management and seeing that it was not possible to create a truly European project, they decided to take a pragmatic approach when they finally intervened. Enter the Functional Airspace Block or FAB. If you cannot get the whole of Europe to work on a harmonized system, have at least a few groups of ANSPs work together… A nice idea which unfortunately ignored the fundamental problems and realities of European ATM.
The FAB concept was met with a conspicuous lack of enthusiasm. Working together, giving up even a small bit of their independence was anathema to the ANSPs and any idea coming from the EC was suspect to begin with. The first round of the Single European Sky regulations was struggling to take off at about the same time and was kept firmly on the ground for the very same reason…
Then SESAR came along. This was a truly European undertaking working to define a truly European air traffic management system. SESAR’s definition phase was hard going but on that particular battle field it was no longer possible to go against the pan-European solution, so instead the proposed new paradigms and solutions were attacked with the usual gusto.
Click here to read the full article
European ATM failing… again?
On 25/04/2011, in FAB News, by cleo
It is almost boring these days how every possible forum, from LinkedIn to Air Traffic Management Magazine, is full of awe-struck articles about the Functional Airspace Blocks (FAB) and ANSP alliances. Subtly or not so subtly they all seem to suggest that this is now what ATM needs and this is how problems will be solved.
Unanswered is of course the question: why could the very same ANSPs not work together in this wonderful new way while they had the chance under the leadership of EUROCONTROL? EATCHIP and ATM2000+ were about the same aims as these new fangled arrangements except that those programs were European while FABs and ANSP alliances are creating the kind of European fragmentation we have not seen since the 70s.
But there is more. At ATC Global in Amsterdam a short while ago, Davind McMillen, EUROCONTROL’s Director General was of the opinion that, all things considered, this looked like a bad summer for delay in Europe.
Excuse me???
In an article extolling the virtues of ANSP alliances, one of the benefits quoted was the examination of the potential for synergies and closer cooperation. Yes, you heard right!
So, after 15 years of EATCHIP and ATM2000+ and 3 years of relatively low traffic caused by the economic crisis we discover that ANSPs have wasted most of the time trying to figure out things and they have still not come to the all important conclusions… Castrating EUROCONTROL in the form of making it the “network manager”, ANSPs are now busy forming alliances and examining the potential for synergies. Oh yes, and they are also creating fragmentation on a level never seen before in the form of the FABs just to make sure things do not get away from them on the European level.
Click here to read the full article
Headache
On 06/04/2011, in Perspectives, by steve
Every so often I wake with a splitting headache which is bad enough as it tends to persist the whole day… Even worse however is the rather somber view I have at times like that of our beloved aviation world.
When I think of airports, I see not the runways and the aircraft parked at the gates… I see expensive supermarkets where finding your gate is difficult not because there are so many of them but because you have to wade through shops selling stuff at “tax-free prices” that are still double of what you would pay on Main Street and because the airport will not post the bloody gate numbers until the last minute to keep you in the shopping area that much longer. Very naughty because passengers sometimes forget that they are there to travel and not to make the airport richer with the consequence that they will be late at the gate and possibly delay the flight (or have their baggage unloaded and be left behind). With more and more of their revenue coming from the concessions, who could blame the airports for often concentrating more on selling to the passengers while giving only the minimum they can get away with to their supposedly main customers, the airlines. It is remarkable that one of the main achievements of SESAR will be the full integration of airports into the air traffic management system. I could have sworn aircraft departed from and arrived on runways at airports for decades and that this integration had taken place many years ago. No Sir, that was not the case. Airport operating companies are profit oriented and very competitive and until recently they very successfully kept out of the ATM fold lest their peculiar ideas about operating aircraft be corrupted by “outside” influences. The ideal airline for an airport would be one with no aircraft… The passengers would come to the airport, shop and dine and shop some more and then go home… Aircraft are such a pain in the six o’clock. They are noisy, need a lot of space and their operators are in constant financial stress so the prices the airport can charge is limited. Walking through some airports these days I get the feeling these guys are transforming the facility into a shopping mall and the flying bit is becoming almost incidental.
A few years ago I was crossing the plaza in front of Amsterdam Airport and a guy with a big suitcase approached me with desperation in his eyes: Sir, he asked, where is the airport here? Where indeed!
Click here to read the full article
BLUE MED FAB Newsletter Number 2 now available
On 21/03/2011, in FAB News, by steve
BLUE MED is the Functional Airspace Block (FAB) being put together by the States in the Mediterranean Sea area and their naturally sunny disposition is amply reflected in their newsletters, of which the second is now available.
FABs are exciting because the idea pre-dates SESAR and when we created the SESAR Concept of Operations it was designed to work in a true single European sky and not in what is essentially a larger scale fragmentation of that European sky. The participants in the various FABs are doing a lot to harmonize their operations but harmonization between the FABs themselves is another cookie… It is on that scale that things were always derailed in the past so it remains to be seen how they will be handled this time round.
Another aspect to think about is that SESAR uses a trajectory based paradigm while FABs continue to be based on the legacy, airspace based paradigm. A lot of work will have to be done (and little or none of it is visible so far) to move the FAB concept away from airspace orientation and towards the trajectory based concept that is the only viable future.
It would be good to hear from FAB experts how they are approaching the above issues.
In the meantime, read the second BLUE MED Newsletter here.
FAB brings European diversity into SESAR – the one thing we were all waiting for?
On 12/03/2011, in FAB News, by cleo
The latest issue of ATC Global Insight was nothing if not extremely entertaining. In a previous article Steve described why the reported claim of DSNA’s boss about SESAR having been built on FABs is total nonsense.
But it seems there was more… Insight tells us that Mr. Georges assured his audience that “FAB will bring European diversity” into SESAR. Oh boy!!!!
I hope somebody has misunderstood something here. I know that it is very fashionable to say that Europe’s strength is in its diversity (cultural, language, outlook, temperament and so on) but diversity in air traffic management is not so much a strength as a huge failure.
Click here to read the full article
DSNA CEO says SESAR CONOPS was built on FABs from day one…
On 12/03/2011, in FAB News, by steve
No Sir, it was NOT!!!!
If ATC Global Insight is to be believed, Mr. Maurice Georges, CEO of French DSNA, said in Amsterdam that “The SESAR operational concept has been built on FABs from day one.”
Well, I do not know which SESAR operational concept they use in France but the concept we wrote and which bears the text, inter alia, “…it is considered that the level of detail reached in the work and the degree of assessment performed are sufficient to give guidance on what should be contained in the SESAR Master Plan.” does not talk about FABs. This is of course WP2.2.2, Deliverable D3, the famous CONOPs, the only real concept of operations that reflects the discussions in the definition phase. That is “from day one” to use Mr. Georges’ words.
This document mentions Functional Airspace Blocks only once towards the end in the context of provision of meteorological information and the abbreviation of FAB is not shown at all!!!
That one lonely mention of the functional airspace block is obviously an editorial oversight because we were very careful not to mix a legacy concept like the FAB into a future oriented concept like SESAR.
Why was that?
To understand this, we must go back a little in history. For many years and through many programs like EATCHIP and ATM2000+, Europe tried to update its ATM system along continent-wide lines to harmonize things in an effort to make an end to the delay crisis. While some progress was made, States’ reluctance to relinquish even a little of their ATM castle mentality basically prevented any big breakthrough. When finally the European Commission got fed up with the obfuscation, the idea of Functional Airspace Blocks and the Single European Sky were invented in the hope that under the stewardship of the EC things would go faster. Fat channce…
In all the hoopla currently surrounding FAB implementation it is easy to forget that the FABs were not embraced with enthusiasm at first and the reluctant brides, the ANSPs had to be dragged to the altar kicking and screaming… causing considerable delay in FAB implementation.
Click here to read the full article
Remember EATCHIP?
On 14/02/2011, in FAB News, by steve
And ATM2000+? You will be forgiven if you do not. After all, we live in the age of SESAR and the FAB… There is a whole new generation of experts laboring on the “things” these new acronyms signify and without a doubt they believe in what they are doing. As they should indeed. But may be, just may be, it is a worthwhile exercise to remind them (and ourselves) what EATCHIP was all about.
The acronym stands for European ATC Harmonization and Implementation Program. It was an ambitious initiative to improve air traffic management in Europe. As tangible results kept slipping ever farther into the future, EATCHIP II and then III were born, all characterized by endless meetings, promises and a lack of action on the part of most of the stakeholders. Clearly, something was very wrong though this was not said in so many words… But in time ATM2000+ was launched which was a new take on the old subject of ATM improvements. The agreements to make ATM2000+ reality were signed on the highest level. More working groups, more meetings while obfuscation and dodging of the issues continued. I remember well how some EUROCONTROL experts were pulling their hair out when for the nth time something that was the perfectly logical next step was once again blocked by one or the other of the stakeholders. Sometimes it was a ground service provider, some times the airlines, but the end result was the same: delay in the program and delays at the airports.
My favorite story of the time concerns the ECIP, the European Convergence and Implementation Plan (the forerunner of the ESSIP) which contained the implementation objectives and the deadlines for implementation. One would think that the date against an ECIP objective was to be taken seriously and a State failing to achieve the objective would come under enormous peer pressure… No way! I sat through many a frustrating meeting which did little else than change the dates of the ECIP objectives… always to a later date! It was enough for one or the other of the big States to announce that they would not meet the originally stipulated date and it was changed immediately. The result? The program was always on time and nobody ever missed a deadline. Cute and very impressive in political statements. This did not help aircraft stranded on the ground but looked very nice in reports and ministerial presentations.
Click here to read the full article
Functional Airspace Blocks (FAB) – New category on Roger-Wilco
On 03/01/2011, in FAB News, by steve
FABs may be the highest political priority for the European Commission and they certainly are the source of high flying political statements, but I still do not like them. Why? Well, the idea when it first came up was a good one. At the time, functional fragmentation of air traffic management in Europe was costing airspace users billions and in spite of all the projects being considered, there was little hope for structural reform.
In order to break the logjam, and fully aware that there was no hope for getting the whole of Europe to co-operate and create a single sky, the EC very pragmatically proposed that groups of States get together and create functional airspace blocks (FAB) along the lines of their ATM “interests”, optimizing and aligning procedures and services inside their FAB… This way, the argument went, at least there would be a single sky of sorts inside the FAB and later on the FABs themselves could be harmonized for a truly single European sky.
Pragmatic and logical as the idea may have been, it was not received by the ANSPs with open arms.
Click here to read the full article
Shorter night routes in FABEC – is this an achievement?
On 03/12/2010, in FAB News, by cleo
Working in air traffic management on occasion one gets the impression that a lot of people have very short memories. Take for instance the proud announcement from FABEC (Functional Airspace Block Europe Central) to the effect that as part of the harmonization of European airspace, shorter night routes are being offered on 115 cross-border connections. FABEC as you may know is one of the elements in the new style European airspace fragmentation called FAB. Belgium, France, Germany, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and Switzerland are working together to bring improvements in their “joint” airspace.
The announcement includes the usual claims about the airlines being able to save 800 thousand nautical miles per year translating to 4800 tonnes of fuel saved and 16000 tonnes less CO2 emissions. Nice… but what is wrong with this picture?
Click here to read the full article
Air Traffic Management déjà vu
On 19/10/2010, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
Reading Henning’s article and with my up-close-and-intimate involvement in the SESAR definition phase (and the 20 or so years leading up to it) I could not escape a terrible feeling of déjà vu. This was only strengthened when I read the news about ANSP CEOs rumbling that the performance targets of the EU’s Single Sky Package were unrealistic and airlines rumbling that the costs arising from the proposed ADS-B implementing rule were placing an inordinate share on them compared to the burden to be borne by the ANSPs.
These are signs of a toxic mix well known from the past and they bode ill for ATM developments in Europe.
But there is more.
One of the airline associations is very vocal about the need to get financing support for the airlines as they consider the price of SESAR prohibitively expensive. This is all very well, but apparently little is being done to actually find and organize such financing.
IATA, the one organization that in the past successfully influenced ATM development directions by being present everywhere down to the working level, has now basically drawn back and seems to believe that things in the ATM world can be influenced equally successfully by simply issuing policies. This is a fallacy that will cost the airlines dearly. Policies are fine but in practice they are often ignored or interpreted in ways favorable to interests other than those of the airlines. By the time this is discovered, all kinds of binding agreements and decisions will have been made and airline protests will be met, in most cases, with a shrug. You missed the boat folks…
Click here to read the full article
EUROCONTROL reorganizing – is this good for you?
On 02/05/2010, in SESAR's Palace, by steve
Visiting EUROCONTROL these days is a bit like entering a five star hotel during off-season in a bad year. Empty offices at every turn and talk in the corridors that tends to focus more on individual futures than on trajectory based operations and other exotic ideas.
Yes, EUROCONTROL is reorganizing (again…) but they are also cutting loose most contract personnel, and even the permanent staff is being reduced. One might say this is a sign of the times – cost cutting being the name of the game everywhere. Like in all organizations, there was a lot of deadwood at EUROCONTROL, but it was and is a unique European institution concentrating ATM skills like no other place on the continent. When an icon like that decides to change itself in fundamental ways, there must be something serious in the air.
Of course EUROCONTROL has to adapt to the new environment as dictated by the Single European Sky and SESAR. One can only hope that this adaptation will result in something better and more efficient. But I have my doubts.
I remember some years ago people used to joke that if EUROCONTROL does not get its act together, the superb headquarters building in Haren will be turned into a great conference hotel which hotel room starved Brussels would no doubt have welcomed with open arms. But jokes apart, most of the real or perceived “failures” of EUROCONTROL back then were not due to incompetence on the part of their experts. Far from it! These experts came with truly forward looking ideas and proposals and some of those are now part of the more advanced features of SESAR to-day! So why were those ideas not implemented back then, years and decades ago? Mainly because European States blocked most of them cold. Why? Because those advanced ideas would have required the kind of continent wide cooperation SES and SESAR are now proposing and that was anathema to most ANSPs keen on protecting their own turf. That things have not changed much until quite recently is shown clearly in the extreme difficulties the European Commission has had in pushing the Single European Sky towards acceptance.
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My FAB my Castle – is there hope for the European air traffic management enterprise?
On 27/11/2009, in Viewpoint, by pbn
I guess from a purely political point of view, criticizing the Functional Airspace Block (FAB) concept is probably not correct. I will not criticize the FABs. What I will do is share a few thoughts with you and also raise a few questions. Who knows, someone may even have the answers.
So what is a FAB? Contrary to what you may have heard, the FAB concept was/is an effort by the European Union to bring some order into the fragmented European ATM scene. That this was not exactly to everyone’s taste was amply evidenced in the time it took to get the first FAB (and subsequent FABs) off the ground. The process stalled a few times and lots of screaming brides had to be dragged to the altar before it was restarted again.
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The CFMU – Valuable asset or problem for the future?
On 30/07/2009, in Viewpoint, by steve
Few people remember the days of horrendous delays in Europe caused by the explosive growth of demand in the latter part of the 70s and early 80s. States tried to cope with the problem as best they could but the individual efforts made things worse as often as they helped in resolving the logjam. Clearly, a region-wide solution was needed. This solution was the Central Flow Management Unit (CFMU), designed and operated by EUROCONTROL on behalf of the ECAC States and with the full blessing of ICAO.
Now, several decades later, the future of the CFMU as a concept and as an operating unit may hang in the balance.
From protecting sectors to ensuring flight efficiency
The first attempt at keeping the ATC system from falling apart under the relentless traffic peaks went under the tab “flow control”. Indeed, this was not much more than a crude quenching of traffic flows which did eliminate sector overloads but left hundreds of aircraft stranded on the ground, delays skyrocketing.
The commissioning of the CFMU brought not only a regionally centralised awareness of the overall situation but also a change in how sector overloads were prevented. The departure slots disbursed by the CFMU are based on several considerations, including alternative routings and aircraft operator preferences, justifying the claim that traffic flows are now being managed rather than just being constrained as in the days of basic flow control.
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