Functional Airspace Block Europe Central (FABEC), formed by the air navigation services provider Ana Luxembourg, DFS, DSNA, LVNL, MUAC, Skeyes and Skyguide, has won the Research, Innovation and Environment category of the ATM 2020 Awards for its package of environmental programmes which have included removing route restrictions, an advanced flexible use of airspace by civil and military users, new direct flight paths, shorter Alpine routes and near-perfect flight efficiency.
Research, Innovation and Environment 2020 ATM Award
“This was a very important project for us because it involved all seven FABEC air navigation service providers (ANSPs) and covered the entire range of operations from the controllers delivering instructions to pilots, to the experts in the back office working on route documents,” said Alex Bristol, CEO Skyguide and chair of the FABEC CEO board who accepted the award on behalf of all FABEC ANSPs. “It was a collaborative effort which has delivered concrete results to our customers and the environment.”
FABEC implemented major environmental savings during 2020 which are now integrated into daily operational procedures and will continue to deliver benefits when traffic returns to pre-pandemic levels.
For example, FABEC ANSPs took advantage of the 2020 traffic downturn to implement measures which have delivered horizontal flight efficiency performance levels above 97% – substantially higher than the 94% achieved by filed flight plans.
As a result, airlines can access ideal flight efficiency performance levels, while taking into account ever-present constraints such as airline preferences, weather events, military training and safety aspects.
The ATM 2020 awards were organized by Air Traffic Management Magazine and Unmanned Airspace.
The airspace of the six FABEC States of Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland is one of the busiest and most complex in the world. The majority of major European airports, major civil airways and military training areas are located in this area. FABEC airspace covers 1.7 million km² and handles over 55% of European air traffic.
