ACI EUROPE is an organization representing more than 450 airports in Europe. Which is the role of airports and of your organization within the wider air transportation system?

First, we have to clarify the word airports : airports in the air transportation system are places where different actors in the air transport chain (such as airlines, ANSPs, ground handlers, airport operators etc) perform operations. If one purely talks about the airport as a piece of infrastructure, the it is clear that there would be no air transportation system possible without airports.

ACI-Europe has a slogan that covers it perfectly : every flight begins at an airport.When we, on the other hand, talk about airport operators, we are essentially providers of connectivity for a certain population. The connections can be towards other places in the same country, with other places in Europe or connecting to the world. Airports play a crucial role in the transport needs of people. More and more, airports become the essential nodes of the intermodal transport network where road, air, rail (and sometimes even sea) connect.

Which needs for the airports and how airports are facing the air transport system needs?

Let me continue in the same direction : connectivity is essential for countries, regions, cities and their population. Airports need sufficient capacity to fulfill the connectivity needs of their region(s) and population(s). This will be one of the major challenges for the political world. If the capacity that is being created in the sky is not matched with capacity on the ground, the Single European Sky will not bring a lot of benefit for the passengers.
Also on the ground plan for future growth is essential despite the economic uncertainty. Airports are long-term, defensive investment but we know that despite the slowdown, there will be long-term growth. Airport operators have survived the economic challenges and must plan for the future based on medium to long-term growth requirements. Furthermore, as engines of economic growth, airports must be incentivized to invest for the benefit of the passengers and of the local communities they serve.

As airport operators we do accept our responsibilities in earning our licence to grow but the planning processes and the political decisions that go with those, must be more efficient. More than in the past, ATM will be an important factor to help to create the necessary capacity. If the ATM infrastructure is successful in moving towards predictability, the airport operators, but what is more important, the passengers will benefit. All partners in the aviation industry must work together to move the airport capacity crunch to the top of the EU's transport agenda.

Cooperation among key stakeholders is rapidly increasing (Network Manager, Deployment Manager, etc.). Which benefits have been already achieved and what can we expect from the next future?

Cooperation among key stakeholders is one of the paradigm shifts that is - too slow - happening. Key stakeholders will have to move in two steps from working in isolation on one airport to working together in a network system where airports are the crucial nodes.

Airport CDM brings already some benefits buts the real important benefits will have to come from a large scale deployment of essential functionalities that will bring benefits in cost effectiveness, environment, safety and capacity. But what is much more important, the benefits needs to be focused on enhancing the passenger experience.

In the next future, we as operational stakeholders in the aviation industry, need to move towards excellent management of the critical aviation infrastructure. In this exercise, investment, new technologies and procedures are important. Synchronised and coordinated deployment of those investment will bring better results than before but what is crucial is that the critical aviation infrastructure, the network, is managed for the customer, the passenger.

I believe that excellent management requires also a change of the modus operandi. Operational stakeholders have to work much more closely together to ensure a performant of the critical aviation infrastructure. So, I think we have to take our responsibility as operational stakeholders and explore the possibilities of industrial partnerships for some of the essential roles. This is also supported by the political level in the draft SES2 .

How can Airports and ANSPs further improve the performance of the system working together in solving airport capacity issues?

ANSPs and airport operators will have to join forces to solve the capacity issues. We will need to join forces on the political level to get the focus on capacity again and we will have to work together on the local level to address the capacity issues at individual airports. We will need to create a sufficient "critical mass" to be successful on the political and the local level.

What is sure is that at local level, airport operators, ANSPs or airlines can't deal with the problem when they act on their own.

On the political level, we believe that it does not make sense to limit the capacity target to the EU skies. Just a gentle reminder:every flight begins at the airport, so if the capacity target for the sky is not matched by a capacity target for the ground then the benefits will be marginal.

Therefore we think the societal goal needs to be to enable the Europen Aviation Infrastructure to handle 3 times more traffic.

On the local level, we have to be coordinated to ensure a successful deployment of performance driven projects improving passenger experience:

- Create a common roadmap Airport/ANSP/Airlines at local level.

- Link the roadmap to PRB Performance targets

- Work in Collaborative Decision-Making (CDM) culture

- Go together through the process of Deployment Programme, synchronisation and coordination of Deployment Manager.