Press and Photo Gallery
EU PAVES WAY FOR OPEN SKIES
Thursday 29th January 2004
Proposals to cut delays for air passengers and reduce congestion in Europe's airspace were passed today in the European Parliament.
The reconfiguration of the EU's upper airspace is designed to alleviate congestion which is currently costing the aviation industry nearly 2.5 billion a year. These alterations will shift the focus to the use of flexible airspace as is currently the case in the UK.
Conservative MEPs succeeded in removing the inclusion of military operations and training from the proposals.
Timothy Kirkhope, MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, said:
"One of our key objections was the inclusion of military operations and I am delighted that this has now been removed from the proposals.
These measures will go someway to creating a more efficient use of airspace, but Member States such as France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Switzerland, which are responsible for 44% of delays, must make their own radical improvements to help ease the situation.
We should now see an improvement in safety, efficiency and the economics of air traffic management which, as air traffic across Europe continues to grow, is good news for the industry, for business and for the consumer."
