Airspace in the USA is administered en bloc. Europe’s air traffic is managed by a host of air navigation service providers. This fragmentation is estimated to result in some ten million tonnes of extra CO2 emissions every year. The European air traffic management system is also both 75% more expensive and 45% less efficient than its US counterpart. 

The specialists project that improving Europe’s air traffic management and making more efficient use of the airspace available would cut jet fuel consumption by up to 12%. This optimising would be the biggest climate protection project in European aviation. It’s primarily the politicians who need to act here. A “Single European Sky” must be established with all possible speed. The tools for doing so have been ready for some time. What has been lacking to date is the political will to push through these improvements, for the sake of both the industry and the environment.

Germany’s unilaterally-imposed restrictions on approaches to Zurich Airport currently add an average of five minutes to every approach. Resulting in extra fuel consumption of 200-300 kg per flight. That puts a further (avoidable) 3000 tonnes onto the annual fuel consumption of the SWISS aircraft fleet. That generates over  9 000 tonnes of additional CO2 emissions.