EU is getting ready for a joint air traffic management

The SESAR program is the technological answer to the major challenges of Europe’s air traffic management. The aim of the SESAR Joint Undertaking is to ensure the modernization of the European air traffic management system by coordinating and concentrating all relevant research and development efforts in the Community. Partnership, sustainability and user-drive are key concepts of the SESAR Joint Undertaking approach.

Founded by the European Community and by EUROCONTROL, fifteen industries have already been pre-selected to join the SESAR joint undertaking.

The SESAR program came to life with the acknowledgment that Europe’s current air traffic control systems will soon be unable to cope with the growth in flight movements, the number of which will double by 2030. In 2007, about 10 million flights were registered, whilst the most likely scenario in the Eurocontrol report “Challenges of Growth” predicts an average growth of 2.7% a year between now and 2030; i.e. 20.4 million flights by 2030.

At the same time, environmental awareness is rising – prompting the need for more efficient operations and better technology. The EU’s Single European Sky legislation has taken jurisdiction over air traffic management issues to Community level in a drive to coordinate the – critically needed – upgrade of European ATM systems.

Key to the SESAR concept is the “business trajectory principle” according to which the users and controllers of the airspace define together, through a collaborative process, the optimal flight path - saving fuel and time.