Thank you, Andreas!
Dear Minister,
Members of the European Parliament,
Distinguished guests,
Members of the SESAR community,
Thank you for your invitation to the SESAR 3 Joint Undertakings annual conference!
This is a wonderful opportunity to meet the SESAR community and share my views on the current and future challenges facing Europes Air-Traffic Management sector.
The European ATM Master Plan 2025 marks the beginning of a new era. This is a chance for the sector to reinvent itself and embrace innovation again. The ATM Master Plan challenges the SESAR community to make European skies the most efficient and environmentally friendly in the world. Turning this vision into reality is in your hands.
The past few years have been unprecedented: a sharp decline in air traffic during COVID-19, followed by a remarkable return of demand, especially for flights to the Mediterranean. The available airspace has shrunk by nearly 20% due to not flying over Russia. The pressure to reduce the environmental impact of flying has increased, along with expectations.
The fragmented, non-automated nature of European air traffic management has led to challenges, particularly in the summer of 2024, the most challenging yet for European airspace. Traffic jams in the air are as unpleasant as on the ground: they pollute, create safety risks, and are annoying for passengers.
Innovation in the air traffic management sector makes services more effective and sustainable. The ATM Master Plan still has many ideas to step up research and increase sustainability. The European Commission has placed the competitiveness of European industry at the heart of its objectives. Aviation is a European success story and an area where European industry leads globally.
Its important to set an agenda for continuous development. But ATM also plays a role in meeting global sustainability objectives. The International Civil Aviation Organization has made operational improvements a key part of its approach to reducing aviations environmental impacts.
If we can implement a more efficient system that considers these concerns, we will support national and legal authorities in finding a balance that hopefully avoids flight restrictions, which, as you know, negatively impact connectivity and economic development.
The future depends on what you do today. The ATM Master Plan proposes targeted innovations with enormous potential: the New Service Delivery model, further integration of machine-human cooperation, and the 10 SESAR Deployment Objectives. Each of these innovations could make a real difference, but none will materialize unless the community engages with them.
I invite all research entities and operational stakeholders to respond and propose projects that will become the SESAR solutions of tomorrow. Deployment will be equally important. We do not want to lose technical solutions after the research phase, as happens too often. So Im delighted to see that deployment has been included in the Master Plan.
It is clear that following up on the ATM Master Plan will have to be a joint effort. Thank you to everyone who has started the ball rolling by putting the Master Plan together: members of the SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking, Eurocontrol, EASA, the SESAR Deployment Manager, and many others. I hope this spirit of cooperation will now carry the Plan through to the deployment phase.
We urgently need to implement innovative solutions and integrate the new service delivery model into a technically upgraded European ATM. I also hope that you leave todays conference feeling motivated and ready for take-off! I am counting on your commitment going forward, and you can certainly count on me to support you in turning this vision for European ATM into reality.
Thank you very much.