ENAIRE, the French service provider (DSNA) and EUROCONTROL promote projects to improve airspace management

Enrique Maurer and Frédéric Guignier (acting CEO), the respective directors of ENAIRE and DSNA, the air navigation service providers in Spain and France, respectively, met in Madrid on Wednesday, together with Iacopo Prissinotti, the Director of the European network manager (EUROCONTROL), to consolidate and monitor the progress being made to coordinate and improve the operating procedures at the cross-border airspace.

The aim of the meeting is to explore constant improvements to the current interfaces that support the various air traffic flows of ENAIRE and DSNA at the air traffic control centres in Madrid and Barcelona with Bordeaux, Brest and Marseille.

The meeting also served to track ongoing projects and initiatives, as well as to discuss technical work in both countries that is particularly relevant to the interface between the airspaces of Spain and France.

In addition, during the meeting, the directors reviewed and endorsed the joint initiatives between Spain and France, which are consistent with EUROCONTROL's actions and are intended to make the design and use of the network of routes between the two countries more efficient, in terms of additional improvements in the Barcelona-Bordeaux interface itself, collateral connections between the Bordeaux and Brest control centres and the Madrid control centre, and the interface between the Marseille and Barcelona control centres.

Lower atmospheric emissions

At the meeting, the network measures promoted by the European Network Manager were also reviewed.

The officials also went over both countries' initiatives to implement the Free Route feature, which will be used to design more efficient airspace routes and help airlines save fuel, as well as reduce atmospheric emissions.

In the technical field, they reviewed their modernization roadmaps and converged on joint initiatives such as sharing information from the air traffic management systems used by the two providers, and providing enhanced surveillance coverage on the Spanish side and improved performance at the two airspace interface thanks to Mode S migration.

EUROCONTROL, led by its Network Management Director, Iacopo Prissinotti, took part with its management team to support the progress being made by both providers to improve the efficiency of the interface between Spain and France, for the benefit of both countries and, by extension, of the entire European network.

Enrique Maurer, Frédéric Guignier and Iacopo Prissinotti noted the spirit of collaboration and proactivity of both countries to improve the operating procedures for their mutual benefit and to boost the overall efficiency of the network.