Is there a deadline for overhauling Europes air traffic management?
The original deadline for putting the SES II package into effect was January 2012. But in light of the ash crisis Commissioner Kallas said “I don’t think we can afford to wait that long”. He plans to fast-track the package this year. By the end of this year the EU plans to have in place an air traffic network manager. That manager would co-ordinate Europe’s air traffic resources – but without taking over from the national air traffic controllers. The network manager would deal with route design, traffic flows and technical tasks, such as allocating transponder codes and aeronautical frequencies, which are done for every flight. The hope is that the communication delays and confusion over data seen in the ash crisis would be avoided. Another big part of SES II is technological innovation – the need to upgrade and harmonise systems across Europe to cope with the expected doubling of air traffic by 2020. The deployment phase of the project, called Sesar, is due to start in 2013. Apart fro
