Single sky wins support amid airline fears over ETS

"Look at the flight paths - it's ridiculous," said European Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani, explaining: "The fact is the sky remains broken up into 27 different skies […] The consequence is that aircraft on average fly 49km more than is strictly necessary. Today we spend 10 to 15 minutes too long in our planes." 

While acknowledging that "some air forces in some member states have doubts about collaborating," he stressed that "it's a question of overcoming the idea that national sovereignty prevails over airspace". 

Association of European Airlines (AEA)  Secretary General Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus said the "re-energising of the Single Sky process could not come at a more crucial time for the European airline industry". 

"Rocketing fuel prices are driving up airline costs at an alarming rate […] We cannot continue to be burdened with the huge costs of en-route inefficiency, needlessly burning fuel which is three times as expensive as it was two years ago," he stressed. 

Peter Hartman, chairman of the AEA and president KLM Royal Dutch Airlines agreed that a Single European Sky would "eventually benefit the passengers with more efficient flights, the environment with less emissions, and the airlines with reduced costs," in contrast with the Emissions Trading Scheme model for aviation, which he claims the current "political discussion" is turning into "a punitive weapon to batter the European aviation industry". 

The AEA nevertheless cautioned that the real test for the SES would be in the implementation. "The reason we have a second package," he said, "is because the first, which saw the light of day four years ago, has stalled through reluctance on the part of EU member states to pool their sovereign airspaces as a shared European resource – a kind of Schengen for the sky". 

The International Air Carrier Association (IACA) said the package was "long overdue", saying "there should be no excuses from member states now for not implementing this package quickly as the benefits are clear to see". The warm welcome contrasts strongly with a parallel statement issued the same day on the EU's plans to include airlines in the ETS. 

"We've already had 24 airline bankruptcies this year and we expect more. What more evidence do policymakers need to see that the aviation industry is in severe financial trouble? A punitive ETS scheme on top of this would be the final straw and add insult to injury," said IACA President Christoph Mueller. "Let there be no doubt that any further financial pressure would bring about more bankruptcies and prevent airlines from investing in new technology and more efficient fleets." 

The European Airports' Association, ACI Europe, also welcomed the package as "a first step towards the recognition that ATM and airport capacity issues need to be jointly addressed within the context of the looming airport capacity crunch". 

ACI Europe President Yiannis Paraschis commented: "It's about time that the EU aligned ATM and airport capacity objectives. For years, the Single European Sky project has been developed in splendid isolation with a focus on doubling capacity in the sky, without meaningful consideration for what happens on the ground. If airport capacity is not addressed at EU level, the Single European Sky will fail and with it, European aviation. We need environmentally-robust capacity on the ground, to compliment what is being created in the air." 

But green NGOs such as Friends of the Earth and Transport and Environment (T&E) continued to push for a strong EU ETS to show "a clear signal of the EU's ambition to tackle climate change," saying they were highly disappointed with proposals to delay the scheme.