Rome – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and ENAV, the Italian Air Navigation Service Provider, have agreed to develop and implement an Italian National Airspace Strategy.
ENAV and IATA will strengthen their existing cooperation for this initiative, which is aimed at delivering benefits to the travelling public and the wider aviation community, while supporting the economic growth and competitiveness of the Italian aviation sector.
The strategy builds on the success of recent airspace and wider air traffic management (ATM) developments put in place by ENAV and Italian stakeholders to respond to the Single European Sky objectives, and to further support modernization and improvements in safety, environmental performance, operational effectiveness, cost efficiency and business continuity.
The demand for aviation in Italy is set to grow to 173 million passengers a year by 2036. Servicing this demand, while ensuring safety, reducing costs, CO2 emissions and delays, requires Italy to modernize its airspace and ATM network.
Air transport contributes €42.4 billion to Italian GDP and supports almost 600,000 jobs. Successful airspace modernization is expected to create significant benefits, generating an extra €27 billion in annual GDP and 95,000 jobs.
With the aim to reinforce a well-established collaborative and a customer-oriented approach, ENAV and IATA commit to work together with the Italian authorities and all aviation stakeholders to deliver and implement a National Airspace Strategy. The main aspects of the strategy cover the leadership and collaborative stakeholder approach, airspace management and technical modernization of the ATM systems.
Roberta Neri, CEO of ENAV, explained: "I welcome this initiative, which is fully in line with ENAV’s focus on customers and partners. We are developing an airspace strategy with the full involvement of stakeholders to further support the ongoing modernization of our technology and operations. The implementation of the free route project – in December 2016 – is one of our pillars of ENAV’s ambitious targets and mission: the safety and punctuality for the millions of passengers who fly in Italian airspace. Our commitment is to contribute to the growth of national and European air transport through efficiency and innovation".
IATA’s Director-General and CEO, Alexandre de Juniac, said: "By choosing to bring IATA on board to develop a National Airspace Strategy for Italy, ENAV is demonstrating vision and leadership for world-class air navigation services. Air travelers to Italy soon will begin to see the benefits of our collaborative approach. And the wider benefits to Italy’s economy and its citizens will follow. We look forward to working with ENAV to make the airspace strategy not only a success for Italy, but also to advance European ATM and accelerate delivery of the Single European Sky goals."
The Italian National Airspace Strategy includes:
The strategic direction for the future of ATM;
Airspace evolution to further support capacity and more efficient routes, to further reduce fuel burn and emissions;
Enhanced cooperation of key Italian stakeholders with European partners to accelerate the Single European Sky initiative.
The work aimed at delivering the Italian Airspace Strategy is ongoing and will further involve representatives from airlines, airports and other aviation stakeholders. ENAV and IATA have presented the key drivers for the Italian Airspace Strategy to ENAC, the Italian Civil Aviation Authority that has fully endorsed the spirit of this initiative, which will provide benefits in terms of safety, environment, flight efficiency, connectivity (including interoperability), cost efficiency and business continuity.