Paris, 4 December 2024.– Ahead of the change of leadership of the FABEC Council and the FABEC CEO Board in 2025, both bodies met yesterday in Paris for their 30th bi-annual joint meeting. The agenda included status reports on the RP4 performance plan, an update on infringement proceedings and the Single European Sky 2+ package, and a way forward on indicators for the future.
For both States and ANSPs, two major issues in particular have dominated the agenda and activities over the past year. First, the finalisation of the SES 2+ package to make the EU airspace less fragmented and to improve air traffic management in terms of safety, capacity, cost-efficiency and the environment. The vote in both the EU Council and Parliament in October and the publication of the new regulation on 11 November marked the end of many years of negotiations.
Secondly, it marked the end of the preparations for the forthcoming Reference Period 4, covering 2025–2029. As a result of the stakeholder consultation with airspace users and ANSPs in September, a joint FABEC performance plan was submitted 1 October and complemented by 15 November in accordance with the completeness check performed by the European Commission. It is currently the only performance plan submitted by a Functional Airspace Block.
“This close coordination has just been another example of the overall outstanding collaboration within FABEC”, says FABEC president Damien Cazé (DG Civil Aviation, France) who will hand over the FABEC presidency 2025 to Luxembourg.
At yesterday‘s meeting, representatives of the FABEC States, their Military Authorities and Air Navigation Service Providers also received an update on the Joint States/ANSP Work-Programme, the report on the development of the social dialogue and background information on the work being done in the area of performance management improvements.
Skeyes’ CEO Johan Decuyper said: „After the successful reorganisation of the FABEC, we are more united than ever and are working in a positive and cooperative spirit to improve our services to airspace users in the core of Europe. I am grateful for the support of all FABEC CEOs and States during my year as FABEC Chairman and will hand over to Michiel van Dorst, CEO of the Dutch ANSP LVNL, in January.”
The airspace of the six FABEC countries –Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Switzerland– is one of the busiest and most complex in the world. It includes the majority of Europe's major airports, major civil airways, and military training areas. The FABEC airspace covers 1.7 million km² and handles more than 55% of Europe's air traffic.
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