As from today, Belgocontrol CEO Johan Decuyper will chair the CEO board of FABEC, the functional airspace block comprising Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and Switzerland in the framework of the Single European Sky. Together with its partners, Belgocontrol wants to strengthen the role of FABEC as a cooperation platform at the heart of the most important airspace in Europe.
With 5.8 million flight movements per year, the FABEC partners (Functional Airspace Block Europe Central) manage over half of the entire European air traffic. Thanks to its size and central position, FABEC is the cornerstone of the Single European Sky, the initiative launched by the European Union for a better integration of airspace volumes in Europe. The objective of FABEC is to turn the Belgian, German, Dutch, Luxembourg, French and Swiss airspace into a continuum focused on safety, efficiency and sustainable development.
It is the first time that a Belgian gets to chair the FABEC Air Navigation Service Provider Strategic Board. Belgocontrol will be playing an active role within the organisation and in the Single European Sky, which will also reflect positively on the whole aviation sector in Belgium.
FABEC as an exchange platform
During his chairmanship, Johan Decuyper wants to strengthen the role of FABEC as an exchange and cooperation platform, in the operational as well as the technological field. Strong partnerships between the six countries’ air navigation service providers and EUROCONTROL are necessary to reach outstanding safety, fluidity and capacity performance levels for air traffic in the FABEC airspace.
Given the global air traffic increase, we need to elaborate strategies to efficiently manage the increase in air traffic movements and the reorganization of airspace for the benefit of all airspace users, both civil and military. FABEC is the ideal platform to take these steps, in view of the importance of the airspace the organization manages.
Moreover, FABEC is the preferred interlocutor for the European Union in the framework of the European Single Sky initiative.
Johan Decuyper, Belgocontrol CEO said: “In order to be successful , FABEC has to develop the ability to swiftly adapt to changing circumstances. While the focus of our users was especially on cost efficiency at the time of the financial crisis and economic downturn in 2008 and the subsequent years, it gradually shifted to flight efficiency as oil prices went up and recently moved to capacity as a result of the rise in air traffic. But throughout these developments, the foremost objective of all FABEC partners is to ensure that navigating our dense and complex airspace meets the highest safety standards.”
14 December 2017
Photos: copyright (c) Belgocontrol
