FAB CE News

The Air Navigation Services Providers (ANSPs) of ten countries comprising the region from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea on November 6, 2013 in Sofia signed a strategic cooperation agreement on establishing a regional cooperation platform. The purpose of the strategic alliance titled GATE ONE, covering the area of three functional airspace blocks (FAB CE, Danube FAB, Baltic FAB) is to promote the efficiency of European Air Traffic Management through an enhanced cooperation among the participating service providers.

The agreement was signed by ANSPs of Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The Parties agreed on the accession of Bosnia-Herzegovina ANSP at their next meeting in January 2014.

The airspace between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea is one of the most important gateways of the European continent: this region handles air traffic in the directions of North and South, East and West, sustaining links between the central and Nordic countries of the European Union as well as with the continent of Asia and the region of the Middle East.

The actual developments of the European Air Traffic Management industry point towards the assumption that the air navigation service providers of the region, operating under similar conditions, can only be efficient in attaining their interests in case they create a closer cooperation in the coordination of strategic issues (and the operative issues being meaningful at the regional level). Furthermore, they need to strive towards representing a consolidated position concerning common technical and economic issues affecting the region and vital to the Union-wide picture of the Air Traffic Management.

The newly appointed Director Network Manager Joe Sultana from Eurocontrol took the opportunity to discuss current issues with the FAB CE CEOs at their committee meeting on September 17^th in Zagreb. Among the topics discussed were recent developments in FAB CE, the EU Pilot and SES 2+. Other items on the agenda of the CEOs included the ongoing development of the FAB CE Legal Entity (FCE) as well as a report from the program manager on FAB CE Seamless Operations.

The 12th FAB CE CEO Meeting was held in Zagreb on July 12, for the first time under the chairmanship of Dragan Bilać, Director General of Croatia Control. Items on the agenda included joint reports from the FAB CE SC Chairman and the Program manager on among other topics the on-going FAB CE strategy development, the FAB CE Communication Plan, FAB CE legal entity and the FAB CE Seamless Operations project.

The 11th FAB CE CEO Meeting was held in Vienna on May 21. In accordance with the ANSP agreement the chairmanship was transferred from the current chairman Johann Zemsky, Austro Control to Dragan Bilać, Director General of Croatia Control. The transfer will go into effect June 1, the term will run for one year.

Dragan Bilać (1970) graduated from the Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing.

He started his career in the Technical Division of Croatia Airlines, continued it in Siemens Information and Communication and came to Croatia Control Ltd (CCL) in 2003, where he was first appointed as safety manager of CroATMP (Croatian Air Traffic Management Modernisation Project).

He also led the implementation of the safety management system (SMS) in CCL and, from 2007 to February 2013, he was in charge of the CCL Safety and Quality Department.  He was FAB CE Safety Sub-Committee Manager (2008-2013) and Eurocontrol Safety Team Member (2007-2013). In March 2013 he was appointed Director General of CCL.

Among other topics discussed at the FAB CEOC were updates on the status of Subcommittee activities as well as the ongoing FAB CE Strategy Development.

After the formal establishment of FAB CE on December 4th, 2012 the FAB CE CEO Committee adopted the FAB CE “Strategic Orientation” leading to a FAB CE Strategy update by the end of 2013, which should reflect the goals of Single European Sky, the European Network Strategy Plan as well as SESAR. The task was assigned to four newly appointed task forces: “Cost Containment”, “Common Business and Performance Planning”, “Staff Usage” and “Concept of Operation”.  Together with the Subcommittees and the Program Manager they will provide input to the strategy development process. The most important goal is to develop a common FAB CE Performance Plan which will serve as foundation for reaching the Single European Sky performance targets still to be determined for RP 2 (2015 – 2019).

The 10th FAB CE CEO Committee took place in Ljubljana on March 22nd on the premises of Slovenia Control. The main topics on the agenda included the on-going FAB CE strategy development and an update on coordination procedures for the FAB Performance Body. The CEOs as well as other meeting participants took the opportunity to pay a visit to the recently opened ACC.