European transport regulation observer : single European sky : the way forward

The Single European Sky (SES) is an initiative of the European Commission conceived in 1999, aimed at reducing delays, increasing safety, mitigating the environmental impact and reducing costs related to service provision in the aviation sector. It seeks to achieve this by promoting the de-fragmentation of the European airspace and by creating a more efficient Air Traffic Management (ATM) system. Although the policy is evolving and new features such as its technological pillar, SESAR, have been added to the original concept, the SES has failed in delivering the expected progress. As a result, the European airspace remains fragmented and capacity problems persist with rapidly growing air traffic. There are various factors behind its late implementation, categorised in the Air Forum discussion as institutional, economic, legal and political. Identification of the problems but also of appropriate solutions is of crucial importance given continuously growing air traffic and its expected doubling in Europe by 2035. More concretely, the forum investigated the following questions: What are the impediments to the implementation of the SES? What are some of the ideas for a future architecture of the European Airspace? And, how will we get to the implementation of the vision for the future? The emergence of new digital technologies is shifting the paradigm of European air traffic management similar to what is observed in other network industries. With this in mind, the 10th Florence Air Forum gathered relevant stakeholders in Budapest to discuss the reasons for the late implementation of the SES, the design options for the future, and ways to reach the vision.