New Environment Standing Committee prioritises sustainable airspace management

FABEC air navigation service providers (ANSPs) have created a new Standing Committee dedicated to the environment in response to the Green Deal initiative launched by the European Commission in December 2019. Under the Sustainable Europe Investment Plan the region aims to become the first climate-neutral block in the world by 2050, backed by financial and practical support from the Commission during the transition. The FABEC Environment Standing Committee will drive improvements in flight efficiency and encourage implementation of measures and procedures which contribute to reduced emissions. Priorities include accelerating the uptake of solutions that optimise flight trajectories, and actions to minimise airspace constraints that impact fuel-efficiency and noise emissions.

In a related development, a ‘CEO Champion’ has been appointed to all the remaining FABEC Standing Committees, with responsibility for overseeing the delivery of priority issues. All FABEC air navigation service providers will continue to contribute with their expertise within each Standing Committee while the CEO Champion brings leadership to support the delivery of Standing Committee goals. The CEO Champions in alphabetic order during 2020 are as follows:

• Environment – John Santurbano, MUAC, EUROCONTROL
• Finance and Performance Management and Chairman CEO Board – Klaus-Dieter Scheurle, DFS, Germany
• HR and Training – Michiel van Dorst, LVNL, Netherlands
• Institutional, Regulatory and Legal – Claudio Clori, ANA, Luxembourg
• Operations – Maurice Georges, DSNA, France
• Safety – Alex Bristol, skyguide, Switzerland
• Technical System– Johan Decuyper, skeyes, Belgium.