European aviation leaders discuss impact of COVID-19, system financing and vision for future European ATM

In a virtual meeting, Europe’s air traffic management (ATM) leaders have today addressed the key issues facing the aviation industry in the context of the COVID-19 crisis and in particular how to manage the expected massive €140 billion in lost revenue in 2020.

The meeting, bringing together the Europe CANSO CEO Committee (EC3) members and the Director General of EUROCONTROL, Eamonn Brennan, jointly assessed options for managing the financial crisis caused by the huge and ongoing decrease in the number of flights. They also discussed how best to support the implementation of the newly published Single European Sky proposal (SES2+) with the aim of ensuring that the European ATM system will be in a position to manage the recovery and future demand while taking into account environmental concerns.

Eamonn Brennan said: “COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on all parts of the aviation industry and the air navigation service providers have also been hit. With an expected loss of 6 million flights this year alone across Europe, and no good expectation of recovery yet, our shared challenge is to see how we can be ready for the recovery when it happens even though financing for high-priority projects is increasingly tight.”

CANSO’s EC3 Chair and the CEO of ANS Finland Raine Luojus said: “CANSO is very pleased to have had today’s opportunity to exchange views with Eamonn on our common challenge. Our members have maintained their services throughout these difficult times, and must now plan for how they can provide the required capacity to our customers, the airspace users, in the years ahead.”

CANSO’s Director Europe Affairs Tanja Grobotek added: “CANSO looks forward to working with EUROCONTROL and other aviation stakeholders to facilitate our industry’s recovery and the transition to the Digital European Sky.”