Single European Sky: new traffic light system assesses environmental performance of air navigation services

Air Traffic Management (ATM) in nine EU Member States has improved, in environmental terms, while it has declined or remained stable in 10, according to a report by the independent Performance Review Body (PRB) for the Single European Sky (SES). For the first time, the report uses a traffic light system to indicate environmental performance.

The SES initiative is designed to improve the performance of air traffic management and air navigation services through better integration of European airspace. The Monitoring Report looks at whether targets were met in key SES performance areas: safety, cost-efficiency, capacity and environment. It concludes that despite lower traffic in 2021 compared to 2019’s pre-COVID levels, EU-wide environmental targets were not reached.

The report’s traffic light system captures the gate-to-gate performance of air traffic management, taking into account environmental inefficiencies during different stages of a flight. The system is based on performance indicators established in the performance and charging regulation.

Nine Member States, including Ireland, Denmark, Finland and Sweden had improved their environmental performance (‘green light’). Nine Member States, including Austria, Hungary, Estonia and Latvia are in the ‘amber light’ zone. Performance in 10 Member States, including France, Cyprus, Lithuania and Poland, was found to be deteriorating or stable (‘red light’).

Detailed information on the performance of individual Member States is presented in the Traffic Light System for Environmental Performance. The PRB has developed this methodology as a basis for discussion with relevant stakeholders, and to better capture, assess and improve the environmental performance of air traffic management in Europe. The PRB looks forward to engaging with the wider industry, in particular Member States, ANSPs and the Network Manager in order to drive improvements.

Background and next steps

The Performance Review Body (PRB) provides independent advice and expertise to the European Commission to improve the performance of air navigation in Europe in the key areas of safety, capacity, environment and cost-efficiency.

The newly released 2021 Annual Monitoring Report looks at a second year heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.

The PRB found that despite the many challenges the aviation industry and ANSPs faced in 2021, safety remained high, while environmental performance in particular gives cause for concern. All the details of the PRB Annual Monitoring Report, including its Annexes with Member States’ factsheets, safety, cost and investments data are available below.

All PRB publications, such as the Annual Monitoring Report 2021, can be accessed via the EU Single Sky Performance website.