The total closure of European skies in April because of the volcanic ash cloud was considered by many observers to be an unnecessarily severe reaction. More than 100,000 flights were cancelled and, according to the Association of European Airlines, the airlines clocked up losses of at least $1 billion. But there was one very positive outcome, which was that the chaos underscored the urgency of the need for the Single European Sky (SES), a fact readily admitted by Eurocontrol, which bore the lion’s share of the airspace management challenge during the ash cloud crisis.
The unified, pan-European air traffic management (ATM) environment heralded in the SES would have considerably simplified the task of directing traffic around the system, providing more flexibility to open and close airspace sectors as required. Instead, the old, fragmented system of national airspace areas prevailed, delaying the measures necessary to solve problems as they occurred.
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