European air space control: crisis management is no solution

IAG CEO Willie Walsh told the Airlines for Europe summit in Mar-2019 that European ATC is "inefficient and starved of proper resources and staffing". Wizz Air CEO Jozsef Varadi has characterised European air traffic control as "bleeding from every wound" and he does not expect much improvement this summer after a spike in delays last year.

Also speaking at the A4E event, EUROCONTROL head Eamonn Brennan said that air traffic capacity in Europe has a long history of being saved by crises, which relieved pressure by lowering demand each time capacity appeared no longer able to cope. He highlighted the current pressures on air traffic management capacity by saying "unless something big happens, this time we're heading for the wall".

Europe's air space management challenges include both strategic considerations of the capacity needed to meet ever growing demand and the constraints on growth resulting from operational issues such as air traffic control strikes.

The consequences of the mismatch between demand and air space capacity are significant. Not only does this lead to growing en route delays to flights (a much bigger source of delay than airport delays), but it also makes a significant contribution to unnecessary emissions of carbon dioxide.