Airline industry organizations and service providers are calling on the UK government to back “urgent and necessary” changes to the nation’s airspace system to handle the anticipated growth in air traffic over the next 15 years. The industry coalition has launched “The Sky’s the Limit,” a campaign to push for modernizing the system with new flight paths and operational procedures.
“Our investment in the very latest generation aircraft will allow us to fly ever more efficiently so that we can keep our fares low and minimize our environmental impact,” Virgin Atlantic CEO Craig Kreeger stated in a December 2 release by the campaign. “But we need modern airspace infrastructure to maximize the benefits of these highly efficient aircraft. We’re calling on the government to recognize the overwhelming positive case for change in terms of the wider economic value and the benefits for noise and emissions.”
The coalition announced the campaign ahead of a public consultation on airspace management the UK Department of Transport plans to conduct next year. Participating in the effort are the Airport Operators Association, the Board of Airline Representatives in the UK, trade body Airlines UK, air navigation service provider UK NATS and the International Air Transport Association.
Last year the airspace system experienced its busiest year ever, accommodating 2 million flights. NATS expects air traffic will increase to 3.1 million annual flights by 2030. Flight delays could rise from around 90,000 minutes a year now to 4 million minutes by 2030 “unless the UK’s aging network of airspace structures and flight paths is redesigned” to take advantage of new technology, the Ansp says.
The coalition advocates redesigning the system to take advantage of satellite-based navigation aids and continuous descents and approaches that eliminate fuel-consuming step-downs and holding patterns. It is also calling on government to assign airspace policy to a new National Infrastructure Commission “to detach it from the short-term political cycle.” Established on an interim basis in October 2015, the commission will become a permanent executive agency within the UK Treasury in January.