Europe’s skies “full in 10 years”
Europe’s leading air traffic control expert has reportedly warned that Europe’s skies will be “full” in less than a decade, with the current control system unable to cope with the number of flights.
Victor Aguado, director general of the Brussels-based agency Eurocontrol, reportedly said: “In the middle of the next decade, we will reach capacity using the present systems. Beyond that, we will need something else, which today’s technology can’t provide.”
The Guardian reports that the agency looks after some 29,000 flights in any 24-hour period and is predicting that flight numbers in Europe will double by the year 2020.
The rise in popularity of no-frills airlines is being blamed for much of the increase in traffic; so, too, is the forecast growth in many European countries.
While flight numbers in France, Germany and the UK are forecast to grow by around three per cent annually over the next six years, flights over the Ukraine are expected to increase by seven per cent each year.
Erik Merckx, Eurocontrol’s head of safety enhancement, reportedly said: “If we don’t get these new states up to speed, with the increasing traffic levels we are predicting, we will have a problem.”
Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad
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