FAB CE News

In just less than a year after signing the memorandum of cooperation aimed towards merging the two Free Route Airspaces SAXFRA (Slovenian Austrian Cross-border Free Route Airspace) and SEAFRA (South-East Axis Free Route Airspace - project of three ANSPs from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro) the South East Common Sky Initiative Free Route Airspace (SECSI FRA) has successfully been implemented, with the support of the Network Manager.

FAB CE will focus on streaming projects to give stakeholders more time to move further and faster on activities such as common procurement and airspace consolidation, said Jan Klas, chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ANS CR in his opening remarks to the Prague FAB CE Social Dialogue meeting in December.

In November 2017 SESAR Deployment Alliance signed an agreement with the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) – which manages the technical and financial implementation of the European Commission’s TEN-T programme – to fund a study into the implementation of Dynamic Airspace Management (DAM) and short-term air traffic management measures (STAMs) throughout the FABCE area.

The summer and autumn months have seen strong air traffic growth in the FAB CE region, with a slight increase in air traffic flow management (ATFM) delays over 2016, mainly as a result of more volatile weather conditions.

Common telecommunications equipment has been delivered to FAB CE member states following completion of the first joint equipment procurement project managed by the FAB CE legal entity, FABCE Aviation Services Ltd (FCE). Six air navigation service providers (ANSPs) purchased CISCO routers based on a common specification and tender to benefit from lower procurement costs and economies of scale.

FCE Director Matej Eljon said: “A comparison of the cost of a single procurement process compared with multiple actions reveals an average cost reduction in excess of 30%. We also achieved a lower market price because of the economies of scale.” Analysis carried out by FCE reveals cost savings in the preparation of legal documents and agreements. It also showed a significant discount in the cost of the equipment for individual ANSPs. The legal documents provide a baseline that is now available for future common procurements.

S&T Slovenia was selected for the single contract award following a competitive tender in June 2017, and the company completed delivery of the network equipment - known as X-bone – to all six ANSPs in August 2017. The replacement hardware provides the telecommunications infrastructure to support seamless exchange of aeronautical messages between ANSPs. It provides a secure network to send and receive data electronically among neighbouring states. On completion of local installation, the expert project team from X-bone community is tasked with testing and validating the new X-bone communications network with operational approval anticipated by mid-2018.

The project is the first common system purchase by a Functional Airspace Block (FAB). It was supported by an expert team which prepared the relevant legal documents and established a framework that can be used to carry out similar projects in the future. A series of templates are now available for further common procurement actions, and can be modified according to specific project requirements.

FCE is ready to launch a new procurement project in the coming months and is confident it will be able to lower costs through a single procurement process compared with costs incurred by ANSPs individually. The FAB CE Technical Sub-Committee is analysing the future investment plans of FAB CE ANSPs to identify infrastructure projects which stand to benefit from common procurement activity. The opportunities are likely to include communications, navigation, and surveillance infrastructure where equipment is already due to be purchased, and operational requirements are comparable. Smart procurement is part of wider a FAB CE objective to harmonise and optimise operations, one of three high level initiatives set out in the FAB CE Strategy, along with safety and performance monitoring, and stakeholder communications.

FAB Central Europe (FAB CE) has reappointed Helios and Integra to run its Programme Support Office (PSO) for the next three years.

The PSO is a vital enabler to FAB CE’s work, helping to align it to Single European Sky and SESAR requirements, coordinate actions and track progress across priority programmes spanning business planning, technical harmonisation, common procurement and operations.

In the first two years of support, the FAB CE programme was reviewed and updated in accordance with the latest requirements of the SESAR Deployment Programme (DP). FAB CE, supported by the PSO, has successfully completed the “Free Route Airspace from the Black Forest to the Black Sea” Study, funded by the European Commission’s Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) and was also successful in achieving INEA funding for its multi-applicant proposals in the competitive 2016 CEF Transport call, aimed at closing further gaps in SESAR DP implementation. FAB CE also completed its first smart/common procurement to upgrade its cross-border telecommunications network (X-bone) hardware and is currently looking at optimisation of the surveillance infrastructure.

FAB CE Programme Manager Matej Eljon said: “The challenge for FAB CE over the next period will be to exploit the cooperative structures already in place and expand our cooperation further to fulfil requirements for new services foreseen by the SESAR Deployment Programme in the most cost-efficient way. We are looking forward to the ongoing support of Helios and Integra, and are confident of meeting the performance targets specified in the FAB CE Performance Plan.”