On Tuesday, MEPs paved the way for improved management of European airspace, enabling more direct flights and fewer delays, and supporting climate neutrality.

The reform of "Single European Sky" rules, already agreed upon in negotiations with the Council last March, strengthens national performance plans for air navigation services and will help to improve EU airspace management. These plans will have binding targets and incentives to make flights more efficient and environmentally friendly. An independent advisory Performance Review Board would be set up to help the Commission and EU member states in taking decisions on implementing these plans.

In addition, the Commission will adopt EU performance targets on capacity, cost efficiency, climate and environmental factors for air navigation services, to be reviewed at least every three years.

MEPs secured a provision that tasks the Commission with assessing how charges levied on airspace users (airlines or private planes operators) for providing air navigation services could encourage them to become more environmentally friendly, by using the most fuel-efficient available routing or alternative clean propulsion technologies.

Another key demand of MEPs during the negotiations was to encourage competition in the air navigation services market. The new bill includes the possibility for air-traffic service providers to procure other air navigation services, such as communication, meteorological or aeronautical information services, under market conditions.

Both co-legislators have now approved the new rules– the Council did so on 26 September. They will enter into force 20 days after publication in the Official Journal of the EU. While most of the provisions will apply from that date, other provisions (penalties for infringing the new rules; national supervisory authority’s independence) will only take effect two years later.