EBAA Calls for Bizav Inclusivity in European Framework

EBAA secretary-general Athar Husain Khan has emphasized the need to include business aviation in a European aviation framework to enable “improved connectivity, efficiency, competitiveness, and regional cohesion across the continent.” Speaking at an aviation conference last month in Bucharest, Romania, Khan said that due to an expected doubling of global air passenger traffic by 2037, “new standards, technologies, harmonized regulations, and adequate infrastructure” will be required to accommodate this growth.

For instance, according to EBAA, in the first three months of this year, business aviation traffic in Romania alone has increased by 25 percent compared to the same period in 2018. “This demonstrates the ever-pressing need for the closely tailored, flexible, point-to-point air transportation for governments, businesses and local communities in the most time-efficient way possible that business aviation provides.”

Business aviation is not just a time machine, Kahn said. “New technologies such as electrification, VTOL, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and alternative fuels are igniting the pace of innovation in aviation. And nowhere is it more prevalent than business aviation.” What’s more, business aviation can make an even more significant contribution to local communities and economies because we fly where others don’t," he said. "As such, we need to ensure that a European aviation framework is inclusive, taking into account the specific needs and challenges of our sector.”

These much-needed improvements and technological advances “will only be made possible if the EU is able to provide adequate infrastructure for business aviation operators in Europe," said Kahn. “In particular, access to airports and airspace which remain major hurdles for our sector.”

New ATC Performance Targets 'Weakest Ever'

Kahn said just a week before his remarks in Romania, that “despite record delays as well as industry calls for urgent EU airspace reform, EU member states approved the weakest performance targets ever for Europe’s ATC providers by agreeing to extend the threshold for delays. These new targets will not incentivize the performance improvements the European airspace network desperately needs, nor will they support the delivery of the Single European Sky benefits.”

Kahn claimed these performance targets “will reward poorly performing air navigation service providers (ANSPs) whilst frustrating those who are already delivering.” He added, “Combined with outdated staffing practices which do not provide the required resource levels in peak periods—for example when European citizens and passengers go on holiday—it becomes evident that real reform of this sector is urgently needed.”

The performance targets Kahn is referring to are part of the findings of a recent study done for the European Commission (EC) to benchmark the performance of ANSPs. The study estimated EU-wide cost inefficiencies in the range of 25-30 percent, due to ANSPs’ “poor performance.” The latest performance targets “will do little to address these inefficiencies. In fact, they will make a situation which allowed ANSPs to generate €1.3 billion [$1.45 billion] in surplus [over the past 10 years] on top of their regulated profits, even worse,” Kahn said.  

“The current underspending by ANSPs on planned capital investments and staffing—already paid for by airspace users and their passengers—should not continue to be rewarded. In 2018, this contributed to delays of more than 19 million minutes—105 percent more than in 2017. Appeasing key member states rather than challenging them on their lackluster performance will further burden airspace users and passengers with rising costs, even more delays, and unnecessary additional CO2 emissions.”

Moving forward, Kahn urged every participant in the target setting process to ensure that national performance targets “will challenge ANSPs to deliver consistent improvements or face financial penalties.”

Kahn concluded his presentation in Bucharest by quoting from a recent European Commission report comparing air traffic management in the U.S. versus Europe. The study found that in 2017, despite the U.S. controlling nearly 50 percent more flights (15.3 million in the U.S. versus 10.4 million in Europe), the total number of flights with reportable delays was 387,000 in Europe compared to 258,000 in the U.S. Kahn said: “This means that 50 percent more flights are delayed in Europe than in the U.S. due to Europe’s fragmented system.”