National Supervisory Authorities Six States sign agreement

On 27 January, the Directors of the National Supervisory Authorities for Civil Aviation (NSA) from Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland signed a Memorandum of Cooperation. This memorandum is a commitment for a close cooperation in order to achieve an efficient and effective oversight of the FABEC air navigation service providers. The six NSA will cooperate closely in particular on common implementation projects or cross-border airspace design and airspace use. They will also assess the overall FABEC Safety Case to be provided to the European Commission by June 2012. The document covers all the domain of oversight of the NSAs, including auditing of the service providers, licensing of air traffic controllers, the establishment of a FABEC performance management system in accordance with the future FABEC governance, and the harmonisation of oversight processes and methods. This signing of this agreement is a further step in strengthening the cooperation between the six FABEC States, coming immediately after the signing of the FABEC Treaty on 2 December 2010 by the Ministries of Transport and Defence.

The airspace of the six States Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland is one of the busiest and most complex in the world. Most of the major European airports and major civil airways and military training areas are located in this area. FABEC airspace has the dimensions of 1.7 million km², about 5.5 million flights per year – 55 percent of all European air traffic. 17,700 people work for air navigation service providers of the FABEC.

For more information on FABEC, visit www.fabec.eu