Following your recent reappointment as Chairman of Assoclearance what is your evaluation for this first mandate?

Assoclearance handles more than 1.5 million slots per year in all Italian airports coordinated and facilitated by a continuous effort to coordinate and optimize activities to ensure an efficient synchronization of the operational requirements of airlines with those of the airports, with special attention given to the capabilities of the runways, terminals and aircraft parking lots. Over the past three years the technological system used has been upgraded and modernized, and at the same time operational costs have been cut, to become what can be considered a primary and essential planning operation of medium-term national air-traffic for the most important national airports. In fact Assoclearance's planning is carried out approximately six months before the actual flight operations. The expansion process has resulted in the creation of an additional computer centre which ensures greater business continuity under all circumstances. On the other hand, in terms of modernization and development, a prototype has been developed which will vastly improve the exchange of information between coordinators in different countries, and coordinators and the airlines. This will make the synchronization of activities between all airports worldwide much easier.

What are the main themes of Assoclearance that need to be looked into or developed over the next three years?

The next three years will see a number of regulatory changes in the activity of slot managements at European airports. It is likely that these changes will be approved by the European Parliament and Council next December. The new developments are solid and include the introduction of market mechanisms which will allow airline companies to exchange their slots.These changes will be phased in during the normal management of activities, further enhancing the technological systems to allow carriers to "trade" their slots, by either swapping or selling their time slots to other carriers interested in acquiring them. Over the next three years we will be focusing, as we have always been, on developing innovation. Such innovation will lead to the improvement of the time slot management process worldwide. We will be concentrating on the development of consistent interoperability between the various players that take part in the operational cycle of air transport (Airport coordinators like Assoclearance, airlines, air navigation service providers like ENAV and those that run the airports).The world of aviation, especially in the field of integrated operational planning, has not stayed up-to-date in regards to what modern technology would allow us to create in terms of management processes handled jointly by the different stakeholders of air transport. In my opinion there is room for National software producers to try and take a market leadership role in the development of new applications, which will inevitably need to be created on a global scale, for the necessary adjustments to the systems to adapt them to the new standards which have already been agreed upon. In this context we are fully available to lend our support to any company that comes forward. In terms of the supply of services we are determined to develop the current activity at an International level to intercept areas of the market where activities similar to those we provide in Italy are starting to become a necessity, due to the gradual increase of air traffic in many regions where economic growth is stronger.

In what way has Assoclearance participated in the process of creating the future Single European Sky?

The first slogan of the policies aimed at creating the Single European Sky was the gate to gate approach. A set up that began with the need to improve the coordination of the daily operational activities. A slogan which over time turned out not to be perfectly suited to embrace all the complex restructuring which has been necessary for the operational management of the continental air traffic.Over time it became apparent that initial set up was not sufficient, and realizing this, the European Institutions approved a second package of regulations for the Single European Sky, which included the establishment of a centralized function for the planning and management of the entire network. To sum everything up with a new slogan the main objectives now pursued by the Single European Sky we could say "seamless planning until the day of operations".The necessity to create a more robust and efficient bridge between medium-term planning, handled by the airport coordinates such as Assoclearance, and the management of flights on the day of departure by the airport operators, airlines and air navigation service providers, has been considerably emphasized by the European Commission, especially with the new rules for the allocation of time slots at EU airports which are currently nearing approval. In this context we are fully involved, both in contributing to supply advice for the introduction of truly useful changes, as well as for the implementation of new process modalities, once the new rules have been approved.

What do you think ENAV should do to improve the service offered to airlines?

The operating performance of ENAV is already absolutely excellent and with equal volume of traffic assisted it is the best in Europe. It is therefore difficult identify or point out any area which could be improved further. However, considering that fuel costs account for approximately 35% of the entire operational costs incurred by airlines, a further effort to create better activity management conditions which could reduce the distances travelled, both in the air and on the ground, should be attempted. For example new operational modalities could be added to the currently existing ones to reduce the amount of time aircrafts spend with their engines on during the ground-handling phase as much as possible. I am, however, confident that the foundations have already been laid and that the already consistent Flight efficiency plan.