Regulatory Framework

Regulatory framework

Since 2012 the European Commission has introduced a regulatory framework in support of the Single European Sky. This regulatory framework aims at setting and implementing binding targets for EU Member States in the key performance areas of safety, environment, airspace capacity and cost efficiency.

Member States put forward proposals as part of Functional Airspace Blocks (FABs) to the European Commission for its approval based on its assessment of whether the plans make a sufficient contribution to the key performance areas. The UK Government submits its plans with the Irish Government on behalf of the UK-Ireland FAB.

RP2

Reference Period 2 (RP2, 2015-19) is the second time that the European Commission has set EU-wide targets for safety, capacity, environment and cost in relation to air navigation services.

Airspace within the UK and Ireland FAB is some of the busiest and most complex in the world and is vital to Europe’s economy, acting as Europe’s North Atlantic gateway, with approximately 80% of North Atlantic traffic passing through it. Our FAB plan for RP2 sets out how over the coming five years the UK and Ireland acting together will:

• Handle projected increases in traffic of c. 10%, while maintaining safety and service quality
• Reduce prices in real terms by c.20% over the duration of the plan
• Improve environmental performance reducing CO2 emissions and fuel burn

It was one of only four out of the nine FAB plans submitted to the European Commission that it judged as being consistent with EU targets in its first assessment of winter 2015.

Where next?