EU GROUP TARGETS AIR TRAFFIC DELAYS

EU GROUP TARGETS AIR TRAFFIC DELAYS    A new high-level group of senior European representatives of the civil and military aviation met last Thursday (Jan. 27) to work on the creation of the so-called “the single European sky.”
   The first meeting of the group, set up by the governments of the European Union, was chaired by Loyola de Palacio, European Commission vice-president in charge of transport and energy.
   “This high-level group received the mandate from the council of transport minister of Dec. 10, 1999 to study the ways of creating an integrated single air space, to enable, in particular, the number and average duration of delays in air transport,” a spokesman for the EC said.
   The senior group has set up six working groups to deal with the different regulatory, security and air traffic management aspects of the single European sky project.
   The EC said that the current state of air traffic delays is
“catastrophic” and worsens every year. More than half of delays are due to the management of air traffic and to the split between 15 national air spaces, the EC said.