The Functional Airspace Block Europe Central (FABEC) States have appointed the Swiss Confederation as FABEC Council presidency, taking over the yearly rotating chairmanship from the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Federal Republic of Germany holds the new vice-chairmanship. FABEC States also confirmed their continued commitment to FABEC in support of the Single European Sky in areas including safety management, digitalisation and environmental sustainability.
Marcel Zuckschwerdt, Deputy Director General of the Federal Office of Civil Aviation said: “FABEC collaboration brings substantial added value to the objectives of the Single European Sky, whether through performance planning, monitoring or airspace planning by means of common work programmes and initiatives. Continued cooperation under a common States-ANSP work programme will help to shape future European airspace policy and lend support to new environmental initiatives.”
During a challenging year for the aviation industry, the Dutch Ministry of Transport represented by Jaco Stremler, Netherlands Director of Civil Aviation, succeeded in expanding joint activities at InterFAB level and delivered coordinated responses to European Commission proposals on exceptional measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic for the third performance reference period (RP3) and SES2+. These activities are set to continue during 2021.
Jaco Stremler said: “The aviation industry downturn caused by the pandemic offers an opportunity to focus on key issues for ATM critical infrastructure in support of more sustainable future operations. I look forward to continue working with my FABEC colleagues to build resilience, raise environmental performance and efficiency in readiness for industry recovery in the coming years.”
The airspace of the six FABEC States of Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland is one of the busiest and most complex in the world. The majority of the major European airports, major civil airways and military training areas are located in this area. FABEC airspace covers 1.7 million km² and handles about 55% of European air traffic.
