SubscribeIn a little over 12 months' time, arguably one of the most significant changes to civil air traffic controller licensing for 40 years will be progressively introduced across all 38 European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) countries when the Eurocontrol Safety Regulatory Requirement ('ESARR') 5 becomes law.
ESARR 5 sets out the safety requirements for all air traffic management (ATM) services personnel - air traffic controllers and air traffic control engineers - and will be detailed in a European Manual of Personnel Licensing the primary initiator for which has been Eurocontrol and its Safety Regulation Commission.
The introduction of a Europe-wide interchangeable air traffic controller licence is seen as one of a wide range of measures designed to improve ATM safety through standardisation and also to boost airspace capacity across the Continent so as to counter an ECAC-predicted 25% shortfall in system capacity by the year 2015.
ATM providers, large and small, also hope to be able to mitigate any individual controller staff shortages by hiring from a wider resource pool of European controllers who will, in holding the new licence, be more easily assimilated and employed than can presently be accomplished.
The UK Guild of Air Traffic Control Officers (GATCO) has been proactive on European initiatives and is generally supportive of the integration of safety and airspace regulation within Europe. Additionally, Eurocontrol’s Performance Review Commission is seeking to create a non-punitive air traffic control reporting system within Europe which GATCO contends should mirror the UK system which works as well as it does because there are many levels of and routes for, reporting available to air traffic controllers.
GATCO as long ago as 1988 drew attention to the need for European nations to develop a unified European ATC system, something that became the theme for its annual conference in 1989 entitled "Uniting Europe’s Skies” but the organisation has ongoing concerns about certain aspects that it believes still require further discussion
Any ‘lowest common denominator’ approach to harmonisation may constrain the ability to satisfy demand and some proposed regulations could lead to a two-tier ATC system between EU and non-EU States whilst concepts such as the proposed ‘functional blocks of airspace’ have potential to lead to dislocation in the current organisation of the airspace in the ECAC area.
GATCO is also concerned to note that safety is not mentioned in the legislative proposals and that missing from these are measures to maintain the current target levels of safety, impose a framework to increase the level of safety and to develop a robust safety culture in air traffic management.
GATCO also considers that whilst aviation’s environmental impact must continue to rank highly as an issue to be considered, for improvements to flow from the Single European Skies initiative, politicians will need to adopt a more pragmatic approach when addressing the often-conflicting demands of the aviation industry and environmental campaigners.
Furthermore, a critical shortage of air traffic controllers in almost all ECAC and EU countries – the Republic of Ireland is one notable exception - is already significant and in consequence, any attempt to create a more mobile multi-national air traffic controller workforce enabled to undertake a continent-wide search of employment may yet prove to be an unachievable goal that is based on unrealistic expectations.
Already there is a 12% shortfall of controllers across Europe and, although strenuous efforts are ongoing to address both the recruitment and training of additional and replacement staff, harmonised licensing which then facilitates a process of ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’ will not deliver a significant or permanent solution.
GATCO is mindful that for the UK in particular, any net outflow of controllers might prove to be an Achilles’ heel serving only to exacerbate a UK national controller shortfall that is not forecast to peak until about 2013.
One of the biggest imponderables to affect a process of North-American style air traffic controller mobility in Europe is language and, although happily for UK and Eire nationals English is the international language of aviation, most state authorities, whether or not their ATM provision is contracted out to a commercialised ATM provider, will still require conversational proficiency in their state’s national language.
Finally, for Europe as a whole, GATCO believes that the real challenge will be whether every participating state embraces the Single European Skies concept and the licensing requirements of ESARR 5 without extensive modification and national ‘opt-outs’.
From a UK national perspective, the important question will be whether the Single European Skies initiative really will deliver a net benefit to all airspace users or whether its implementation will yet prove to be just a politically-driven ‘red herring’.
The UK Guild of Air Traffic Control Officers
