Full Support to Accelerate Single European Sky

IATAs Director General and CEO, Giovanni Bisignani made the following statement: I applaud the leadership of Minister Blanco and Vice President Kallas to urgently fast track implementation of the Single European Sky. The volcanic ash crisis that paralyzed European air transport for nearly a week made it crystal clear that the Single European Sky is a critical missing link in Europes infrastructure. We have been discussing the Single European Sky for decades. It was a priority of the European Commission as far back as the early 1990s when I was Chairman of the Association of European Airlines. The technical plans are in place. The 4 May meeting must back up the technical preparations with an implementation time line for a fully integrated Single European Sky and the political will to achieve it. The Single European Sky is much broader than a crisis management mechanism. It will improve Europes competitiveness and environmental performance. The inefficiency of the current system is a EUR 5 billion burden on Europes economy and wastes 16 million tonnes of CO2 in delays and indirect routings.