The European Parliament's Transport committee voted today on a report on the implementation of the Single European Sky (SES) legislation, raising concerns and the alarming consequences unless Member States accelerate a full and timely delivery.

While acknowledging that there have been many steps towards reaching the goal of a Single European Sky, ALDE spokesperson Gesine Meissner (FDP, Germany) said: "The sky has become a regular space for transportation which needs, on the same level as ground transportation, to be properly structured to increase safety, capacity and efficiency".

"Today flights quite often don't take the most direct route but fly zigzag routes because airspace is often reserved for military use. This is neither ecologically nor economically reasonable. This would not be accepted for ground transportation, why should it be so in the air?" Most Member States in fact still have failed to meet core targets to complete the SES, namely the "functional airspace blocks" which were supposed to be operational by 4 December 2012 and the "EU performance scheme" such as shorter flight routes, less delays and less costs for air traffic control services. 

"The implications of this delay are economically and environmentally tangible: billions of euros, thousands of jobs and millions of tons of CO2 unnecessarily wasted ".  
 
To ensure Member States fast implementation, concluded Mrs Meissner: "We call on the Commission to launch infringement procedures against those Member States which do not comply with EU SES legislation. It is in everybody's interest to swiftly develop the safest and most efficient air corridor system".