Press Release
Emphasis on enhanced collaboration during difficult times
21-05-2021
The Borealis Alliance Board, consisting of leaders from nine European Air Navigation Service Providers have recently reaffirmed their intention to collaborate on future initiatives and reiterated their commitment to the original Alliance Vision “To be the leading ANSP Alliance that enables its members to drive better performance for stakeholders through business collaboration.”
The Board members agreed that the Free Route Airspace Programme within the Alliance has demonstrated the clear benefits by working closely together. This has enabled the sharing of information, ideas and lessons learned, and has fostered excellent working relationships between their professional staff of each of the ANSPs, from Programme to Board levels. This collaboration has already extended into activities such as Cyber Security and U-Space, says Reynir Sigurdsson, Executive Director of the Borealis Alliance.
The Covid-19 Pandemic has required a fundamental change in the way ANSPs conduct their business. As a result, the Borealis Alliance members have worked closer together than ever before, sharing information and developments as they arise and working together to counter a number of challenges the industry is facing at this uncertain time.
A clear sign of how times have changed, the last board meeting, was held digitally in March this year and not in person in Oslo, Norway, as originally planned. Emphasis was placed on the expected finalisation of the implementation of cross-border Free Route Airspace, which is an acknowledged success of the Alliance. The Board furthermore discussed the European Union’s Single European Sky II+ (SESII+) initiative, environment and SESAR 3.
Focus on the environment
The SESII+ proposal is an obvious priority for all actors of the European aviation. The Borealis Alliance Members will continue joining efforts to develop a common understanding and as much as possible joint and constructive positions to support discussions. This will happen first at ANSP level through CANSO, then with the European Commission, and as appropriate at national level to inform State representatives in the Council and European MPs.
With regards to SESAR 3 (Single European Sky ATM Research) the Borealis Alliance Board decided to support innovation and the digital transformation of Air Traffic Management, and consequently signed the Memorandum of understanding on the SESAR 3 partnership. This will allow all members of the Alliance, and the Alliance itself, to be involved in the discussions towards the setting up of this new partnership and allow them in the course of 2021 to take an informed decision on the final commitment to become members of SESAR 3.
Against the backdrop of the European Green Deal, the board had already identified the environment as a priority policy item at its March 2020 meeting in Riga. In October, the requirement that the recovery of aviation in a post-pandemic context must be environmentally friendly was even more obvious. The board thus approved the setting up of a new activity on environmental performance, to promote achievements and set new improvement goals demonstrating the contribution of ANSPs to the aviation environmental performance. The board reaffirmed this initiative in the latest board meeting held in March this year.
Ms. Ann Persson Grivas, Director General of LFV, Air Navigation Services of Sweden and new Chair of the Borealis Alliance Board, says the new policy related to environmental issues is an exciting project:
“I come into the work as a new Chair with a plan towards furthering all our main objectives but also to push forward new priorities, important ones that all ANSPs will in the future need to include in their projects. The plan is for goals that will help people to see more clearly the role we play in the changing courses of environmental issues.”
