European ATM is an extremely complicated process. Europe does not have a single ATM framework whereby air navigation is managed at a European level. Europe also has some of the busiest skies in the world with as many as 33,000 flights a day.
The Single European Sky (SES) is an ambitious initiative launched by the European Commission in 2004 to reform the architecture of European ATM. It proposes a legislative approach to meet future capacity and safety needs at a European rather than local level.
The key objectives of the SES are:
- To restructure European airspace as a function of air traffic flows
- To create additional capacity
- To increase the overall efficiency of the air traffic management system.
In order to fulfil these objectives, the European Commission set high-level goals for the SES in 2012 to be met by 2020 and beyond:
- Enable a 3-fold increase in capacity which will also reduce delays both on the ground and in the air
- Improve safety by a factor of 10
- Enable a 10% reduction in the effects flights have on the environment
- Provide ATM services to the airspace users at a cost of at least 50% less
As the technological pillar of Europe’s ambitious Single European Sky (SES) initiative, SESAR is the mechanism which coordinates and concentrates all EU research and development (R&D) activities in ATM, pooling together a wealth experts to develop the new generation of ATM. Today, SESAR unites around 3,000 experts in Europe and beyond.