Malta signs up to new Mediterranean airspace management plan

Communications Minister Austin Gatt today signed the Blue Med Declaration on the creation of a Mediterranean Functional Airspace Block (FAB), which is expected to optimise air-traffic routes and thus leading to lower emissions and cost savings for airlines.

The Blue Med Declaration was signed in Rome, between Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Malta, with Albania, Egypt and Tunisia signing as participating states, while Jordan signed as an observer.

Under the Single European Sky legislation, EU Member States are legally required to enter into a regional form of integrated management known as a Functional Airspace Block (FAB) – an airspace block based on operational requirements such as safety, capacity and cost, reflecting the need to ensure more integrated management of airspace regardless of existing national boundaries.

The first phase of the Blue Med project was a feasibility study that indicated that the better management of airspace through Functional Airspace Blocks would reduce around 1.7 million km in fights thus leading to an annual approximate saving of around .€1.8 million to airlines.

Dr Gatt said Malta was committed to go to the next step in this process, especially since the Blue Med project addressed two major concerns in European aviation today, emissions and cost-savings. He praised the Blue Med initiative within the EUs Single European Skies legislation as an example of how action at a European Union level can lead to tangible benefits to airline users.