The 2023 edition of the FAB CE Airspace Plan has now been published.The Plan supports the airspace and capacity conclusions of the European Airspace Architecture Study (EAAS) by identifying optimised airspace solutions and harmonising operational approaches among FAB CE air navigation service providers (ANSPs).
According to the executive summary of the report:
“A dedicated (enlarged) Airspace Task Force (ATF) working in co-operation with the Network Manager NM) and adjacent ANSPs has been tasked with transforming the EAAS 2025 and 2030 Visions to implementable airspace design solutions.”
“The projects highlighted in this FASP are focused on five main programmes,” said Martin Stieber, Chairman of the FAB CE Operational Sub-Committee. “The first of these is the design, implementation and expansion of Free Route Airspace (FRA) initiatives affecting FAB CE ANSPs and/or States. In particular, there are two main FRA projects in the pipeline: the planned cross border operations between BALTIC FRA and FRACZECH as of February 2024 and the common initiative of FRAIT and SECSIFRA to operate cross-border, now revised to March 2024. Then there is the design and implementation of Special Use Airspace (SUA) which may affect FAB CE interfaces or the network in general; sectorisation projects potentially impacting a FAB CE ANSP’s en-route capacity; sectorisation projects potentially impacting a FAB CE ANSP’s main airport throughput; and, finally, system implementation projects which may enable or restrict available capacity.”
In terms of key performance indicators, despite the geopolitical developments in Eastern parts of Europe during 2022 and the overall capacity situation in central Europe, the key environmental performance value (measured in terms of horizontal flight efficiency for flight plan filing, offering shortest routes) for FAB CE has reached the same stable value as recorded before 2020: 2.97%.
The FAB CE Airspace Plan follows the same structure as in 2022 with the static data contained in the separate FAB CE Airspace Strategy document with the Airspace Plan document focusing on the dynamic data regarding traffic and delay evolution and forecasts and the completed airspace and upcoming airspace developments as documented in the European Route Network Improvement Plan (ERNIP) - Part 2 route catalogue.
The new FAB CE Airspace Plan can be viewed here.