Press Release
North European Air Navigation Service Providers form new commercial alliance
20-06-2012
20th June 2012 – Nine northern European Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) have today signed a formal commercial alliance to improve efficiency, and reduce costs and environmental impact.
The new alliance, called Borealis Alliance, includes the ANSPs of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Norway, Sweden and the UK. They provide air traffic services for 3.5m flights a year, across 12.5 million Km2 of north European airspace. Between them, they form Europe's major transatlantic gateway.
Borealis Alliance is a unique move to enable joint initiatives to improve flight efficiency and reduce environmental impact, delivered across the whole area in a move which will also streamline cost of services and operational/technical infrastructure.
Borealis Alliance will focus on strategic business cooperation between the member ANSPs, seeking economies of scale and projects that can be achieved on a commercial basis, complementing the work of the northern European Functional Airspace Blocks (FABs) but without the need for regulatory or State involvement.
In a joint statement the CEOs of the nine ANSPs said: "We are delighted to form Borealis Alliance, which is a binding agreement to deliver efficiencies that we cannot achieve on our own and through which we can share the expertise of all our members."
"We all face a common challenge to improve quality of service to our customers, implement greater standardisation of infrastructure and overall to do all we can to ensure we deliver value for money. This also helps achieve Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) deployment, in service of Single European Sky (SES)."
"Borealis Alliance will require hard work, commitment and an open and trusting relationship between all our members. Its success depends on our ability to integrate joint activities across our individual business strategies and plans – and sharing control of joint activities with our partners."
Lance Stuart has been recruited from NATS in the UK to be the new Executive Director. Knut Skaar of Norway's Avinor, Chairman of the Borealis Alliance Board, said: "Lance has a strong ANSP background and vast international experience. I am confident he is the right person to lead the Borealis Alliance in the challenging and exciting years to come."
An executive management team will be recruited over the summer and Borealis Alliance will operate an initial proving period to the end of 2013.
Lance Stuart said: "I am very excited to have the opportunity to lead this unique alliance. This is a really challenging time for the aviation business, and it has never been more important for ANSPs to do all they can to deliver best value to our customers. I strongly believe that Borealis Alliance, based on the principles of business to business cooperation, has the potential to deliver real benefits to customers and to our members."
