Minister for Public Works Presents ENAIRE Strategic Plan for Next Four Years

2020 Flight Plan to cover air traffic growth and Spain’s commitments to Single European Sky

Minister for Public Works Íñigo de la Serna today presented the new ENAIRE Strategic Plan, named the 2020 Flight Plan, which sets forth the air navigation manager’s goals and activities to cover growth in air traffic and Spain’s commitments to the Single European Sky project over the next four years. ### Imagen embebida: IMG_Ndp_051007_Plan_2020 ###

ENAIRE anticipates air traffic growing by 16% through to 2020, when it will reach 2.2 million flights, some 300,000 more than today. In response to this background of increasing demand and European requirements, the Spanish airspace manager plans to improve the capacity and efficiency of the national airspace and to invest in research, technology and innovation.

ENAIRE is the fourth-largest provider in Europe in terms of flights managed in its airspace, one of the most extensive on the continent with 2.2Mn sq km.

The Single European Sky project makes the airspace an increasingly global and more competitive environment. This initiative by the European Commission aims to eliminate the current fragmentation of national airspaces and systems to power a truly standardised European airspace with fully interoperable technology systems.

To deliver on this goal and lead the change, ENAIRE will invest €294Mn over the 2017-2020 period to modernise the Spanish air navigation space and take it forwards.

The minister said that this investment will drive safety levels, contribute to environmental sustainability and provide a safe, efficient and quality service for passengers, carriers and airport managers which is also in line with the commitment taken on with the DORA document for airport regulation.

Investment to lead change

The ENAIRE investments (€70.1Mn for 2017, €73.3Mn for 2018, €74.8Mn for 2019 and €76Mn for 2020) are ring-fenced for actions such as:

·Evolution of the Automated Air Traffic Control System (SACTA) with advanced solutions in line with leading European providers (iTEC project).

·Modernisation of controller-pilot voice communication systems, including ground-to-air datalinks and applying new technologies that will cover Single Sky requirements.

· Evolution of the navigation and surveillance systems by incorporating next-generation radars (Mode S) and satellite technologies (EGNOS, ADS-B).

·Rollout of a new high-performance air navigation data network for speedy information exchange.

More competitive charges

The 2020 Flight Plan also includes an 11.5% reduction in route charges between 2018 and 2020 (3% in 2018, 4% in 2019 and 5% in 2020). This will make it one of the cheapest route charges among leading European providers as of 2019, saving carriers an estimated €184Mn. The measure is designed to foster sector competition that can positively impact air transport users.

All of this investment effort and the charge reduction will be done by also upholding ENAIRE’s financial viability, with an annual EBITDA of €200Mn-plus over the four years and a 4.5% annual rise in capital adequacy ratio.

More capacity and efficiency for the Spanish airspace

The minister also referenced the actions that will make the Spanish airspace more capable and efficient. These include redesigning air routes throughout the Spanish airspace, implementing the ‘free route’ flight concept in the upper space, the flexible use of civil/military airspace, the implementation of new satellite technology-based procedures and the promotion of non-commercial aviation in Spain.

Environmental benefits

Enhanced route efficiency as a result of more direct route designs and the implementation of green approaches at airports is expected to deliver the following environmental benefits between 2017 and 2020: 5.5 million nautical miles; 60,000 tonnes of fuel and 190,000 tonnes of CO2. The fuel saving in the period will be more than €25Mn.

Internationalisation

With regards the ENAIRE internationalisation plan, Mr de la Serna announced that the air navigation manager will actively engage in international satellite navigation partnerships (ESSP) and satellite surveillance partnerships (ADS-B) and compete for pan-European digital network services (NewPENS) through to 2028, the European Air Transit Information Management Service (EAIMS) through to 2030 and new satellite communication for air traffic (IRIS) opportunities.