Under the Single European Sky initiative, the UK-Irish FAB was established ten months ago and today's report is the culmination of the consultative process which took place between both agencies and their respective civil and military customers on either side of the Irish Sea.
The report lists 30 initiatives which it is hoped will deliver annual cost savings of €12m by 2013, rising to €40m per annum by 2018, originating from reduced fuel burn, reduced CO2 emissions and shorter aircraft routings.
Among one of the early successes of the FAB is the implementation of the P600 Irish Sea Airspace change which came into effect on May 7. The change improves the alignment of the airspace adjoining Southwest Scotland, Northern Ireland and Dublin and is designed to improve domestic traffic and North Atlantic transit traffic by delivering more direct routing's.
Of the 30 improvements covered by the plan, 15 will be rolled out in 2009 including :
- Improvements to the Oceanic / Domestic interface for UK and Irish traffic.
- Removal of ATS routes from Shannon Upper airspace to allow direct routing and flight planning from entry point to exit planning into UK airspace delivering fuel uptake and route distance savings for North Atlantic traffic.
- The creation of so called 'straight line' routes across Irish and UK airspace and into Europe for eastbound trans Atlantic traffic during quiet night time periods.
The UK-Irish FAB is the first FAB to come into operation in Europe. It should be noted that the agreement does not make any changes to sovereign airspace nor does it change any regulatory or safety roles in either country.
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