The COVID-19 pandemic has brought all sectors of the Aviation Industry into crisis in an unprecedented fashion with traffic reductions of more than 90%.

Impact of COVID-19 on the European Aviation Industry

International and national Government restrictions designed to combat the disease have also reduced air travel to the most essential flights only.

It is now obvious that the Air Traffic Management (ATM) sector is a crucial infrastructure which ensures that the skies in Europe have remained open and is guaranteeing the priority and safety of medical, repatriation, emergency and cargo flights when all other forms of transport infrastructure have become choked at border crossing bottlenecks all across Europe.

ATM personnel are still working 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, most of them in facilities not fully ready to cope with the pandemic spread within the premises.

Rostering systems have been adapted and contingency plans were created with the help of the Unions at national level. Some of these contingency plans are already in force in many States.

When everyone is advised to stay at home, teams of dedicated European ATM professionals are setting an honourable example of commitment to keep the skies open for benefit and safety of all European citizens.

To preserve the highest safety standards within each Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP), it is fundamental to maintain safe and healthy working conditions for our ATM Personnel.