Seventeenth Meeting of the DANUBE FAB Governing Bodies
On 3rd November 2021, ROMATSA and BULATSA management teams met online for the seventeenth meeting of the DANUBE FAB ANSP Board. The meeting was co-chaired by Adrian COJOC, Director General ROMATSA and by Ivan DIAKSOV, Deputy Director General Operations, BULATSA.
With a view to increasing the level of cooperation and coordination at FAB level and identifying new emerging solutions to overcome the economic and social damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to the aviation sector, the participants reviewed the key activities completed throughout 2021, whilst looking ahead with discussions on potential future implementation projects that could be completed collaboratively by the FAB.
During this meeting, attendees were updated on projects that are soon to be completed by the FAB, most notably the inclusion of Chisinau CTA in SEE FRA (South-East Free Route Airspace) on 24th February 2022. In addition to this, the ongoing technical project to implement an extended set of OLDI messages was summarised for attendees. With a number of projects completed by DANUBE FAB in 2021, a refresh of technical documentation and projects has been completed and the proposed outputs of an internal Impact Study were presented to the Board. The Board discussed these findings in detail and is excited to see the progression DANUBE FAB can make in the coming years across a wide range of topics.
The seventeenth meeting of the DANUBE FAB Governing Council was held online on 4th November. The meeting was co-chaired by Claudia VIRLAN, Head of ATM/ANS Department, Romanian NSA, and Hristo SHTERIONOV, Director General, Bulgarian NSA. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Ministries of Transport, Civil and Military Aviation Authorities, National Supervisory Authorities and ANSPs from both countries. The Council was also pleased to welcome a delegation of observers from the Republic of North Macedonia.
The Council members reconfirmed their support to DANUBE FAB efforts to mitigate the COVID-induced severe impact on air traffic service provision resulting in a significant reduction of planned resources and discontinued solution activities. In doing so, the Council members reviewed the activities completed in 2021, looking ahead to those that have been discontinued or affected by the COVID pandemic, addressing at the same time potential future projects that could be completed jointly as a FAB. These activities focussed on our high priority projects: Free Route Airspace, Technical Rationalisation and Infrastructure, Enlargement of DANUBE FAB and InterFAB Cooperation.
The main updates focussed on the future plans of the FAB to continue to expand SEE FRA through advancing proposals made within the European Route Network Improvement Plan (ERNIP). Regarding future DANUBE FAB projects, members of the Council provided feedback on an internal Impact Study which shall help set to way forward for the FAB in the coming years, beginning with the Strategic Programme 2022-2026, due to be publicly released in early 2022.
Members discussed the main ongoing regulatory initiatives taking place at European level and their potential impact on the FAB. The SES 2+ recast proposals and the adapted Performance and Charging scheme were discussed and shall continue to be monitored as they progress. In addition to this, the Governing Council was informed of the InterFAB activities undertaken by the FAB in recent months and was also supportive of the research workshop on Resilience in ATM, due to be held in Sofia in September 2022.
Finally, the Governing Council was briefed on the status of the FAB procurements and the NSA Board Activity Report.
The next round of DANUBE FAB Governing Bodies meetings are planned for the spring of 2022.