Spain calls for a 'Single European Sky' after volcano fiasco

Jos?© Blanco, the Spanish Minister of Public Works, has announced that a special meeting of the Transport Council is to take place in order to establish what he calls a 'Single European Sky'.

The meeting, to be held in Brussels on May 4th, will examine the ways in which flight operation and emergency response procedures can be improved after the volcanic ash cloud crisis in mid-April, during which the cloud of ash from the Eyjafjallajoekull volcano in Iceland grounded most flights across European airspace. One of the only countries left unaffected by the cloud was Spain, although the subsequent influx of otherwise-stranded passengers placed enormous pressure on the country’s transport infrastructure, particularly the airports.

Minister Blanco highlights the need for new protocols to be established, in partnership and with agreement from the airline industry, as the current protocols date from the 1980s. The ‘Single European Sky’ (‘Unico Cielo Europeo’) would mean that policies and protocols could be put in place for the entire European airspace, in the hope that future any future crisis would be more carefully managed.

The video of Minister Blanco’s speech can be viewed in the Projects Video section.

Published: Monday, 26th April 2010 by Tom Freeman

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