Eamonn Brennan, Eurocontrol director-general, and Olivier Jankovec, director general of ACI Europe, have signed an MoU to strengthen co-operation between the organisations.
Eurocontrol. the intergovernmental organisation representing 41 Member States and two Comprehensive Agreement States, and ACI Europe, the trade association for Europe’s airports, have a long history of successful collaboration and a shared focus on operational efficiency and sustainability.
The Memorandum of Understanding, which replaces an existing agreement dating from 2008, builds a framework of co-operation around two pillars. The first of these, efficient air transport, will be achieved through increased integration between operations at and around airport platforms and air traffic management, moving to collaborative decision making.
This integration will ultimately result in a one-on-one information exchange between the Network Operation Plan (NOP) and Airport Operation Plan (AOP).
The second pillar, sustainable air transport, will be achieved through the continued development and outreach of Airport Carbon Accreditation, the global standard for carbon management and reduction at airports, as well as the continued rollout of Eurocontrol’s Collaborative Environmental Management, which provides process guidance through which airports and their operational stakeholders can reduce their environmental impact.
ACI’s Jankovec said: “For Europe’s airports, recovering from COVID-19 and the imperative to ‘build back better’ means chasing every opportunity to increase their operational efficiency and reduce their environmental footprint.
“Over the past years, Eurocontrol has come to play an increasingly important role in supporting not just airports but the whole aviation ecosystem. The challenges we face in progressing further and the interconnected nature of aviation means enhanced collaboration and integration are key. This is precisely what this new agreement between is about.”
