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Interview with Mr. Joseph Callus

08/11/2013

BLUE MED welcomes.. interview to Mr. Joseph Callus, newly established GB Member from Malta

What is your view of the SES legislation, in particular does it provide a sufficient framework for the expected future performance of the FABs to meet Europe's air transport demands ?

The current SES legislation in my view has all the necessary legal provisions for the establishment of the Functional Airspace Blocks (FABs) in the manner that the Commission envisaged. These provisions take care of all related relevant matters concerning Member States, Air Navigation Service Providers and National Supervisory Authorities. Furthermore all Member States of an FAB had to submit to the Commission adequate documentation concerning all aspects of the establishment of the proposed FAB, in order for the Commission to be satisfied that those Member States were going along with the provisions of the SES legislation.

Clearly the legislation in itself does not guarantee that the future European air transport demands will be met because this objective can be met when all the main players in air traffic management, that is the Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) and the National Supervisory Authorities (NSA) have done their part. On the former perhaps lies the major burden to come up with major ATM and ATC infrastructural improvements on an FAB wide level to have sufficient capacity to handle future air taffic demands whilst also further improving safety standards. This requires a lot of investment financially and in the training of human resources.

In the short time since that I have taken up my role as the member on the BLUE MED FAB Governing Board on behalf of Malta I was very much impressed by the way that the Maltese ANSP and NSA staff have devoted their energy and know how to contribute to the BLUE MED FAB project. I would also add that my first experience in the manner with which the BLUE MED Governing Board worked in order to ensure the FAB’s success, showed a high level of co-ordination and cooperation by all the Member States participating in the BLUE MED FAB.


What do you expect to see as a result of Blue Med FAB's contribution to the overall performance achievement ?

There are a lot of projects in the BLUE MED FAB that are planned to provide ATM improvements both at national and FAB levels. They start from the most basic such as the revision of the route network that should bring about a reduction in distance flown by aircraft when flying to their destination, thereby reducing fuel consumption and consequent lowering of environmental pollution to more efficient air traffic control systems having more safety nets that will result in a higher level of safety in air navigation. En route charges should also be driven downwards to the advantage of airspace users.

There are areas of the BLUE MED FAB where capacity is not sufficient at present, though I hasten to say that this is not the case in so far as the Flight Information Region Malta administers is concerned. But there are plans to redress the inadequacies that exist, however the problem that has to be resolved in my view will always be the extremely high density of traffic over and in central Europe and the airport infrastructure generally because these give rise to the major delays that are experienced by the travelling public.

What other Blue Med potential developments and benefits would you foresee in the medium and long term ?

The BLUE MED FAB as it is constituted today should in a short time result in a much better coordinated and harmonised ATM system in the airspace that it is responsible for. Inter FAB cooperation and coordination between the BLUE MED FAB and adjacent FABs should also be further improved and strengthened.

However in the case of BLUE MED FAB the potential developments that are foreseen are those of getting non-EU States adjacent to the FAB on the North African coast from Tunisia to Egypt, Israel and Lebanon, and possibly some of those Balkan States not yet members of the EU, to participate in the BLUE MED FAB activities, as Observers , Associated Partners and Full Members.

The aim of the participation by these States would be that of having harmonised ATM systems between the European States and non- EU States that I have just mentioned well beyond the borders of the European Union.


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