Richard Deakin appointed Chairman of A6 Steering Group

The A6 – an alliance of some of the largest and most influential Air Navigation Service Providers in Europe – has today announced that Richard Deakin, Chief Executive Officer NATS, is to become Chairman of the group.

Richard Deakin CEO NATS

“I am delighted to take on this role at such a crucial time for European aviation,” said Richard Deakin. “The European air traffic management system is in need of modernisation. Our airline customers require a system that delivers significant safety, capacity, cost and environmental benefits. Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) will deliver those benefits and it is vital that we move forward with the deployment phase of this important programme.”

The A6 alliance was formed in 2007 to ensure that ANSPs had a voice in SESAR. As one of the biggest investors in the ATM infrastructure of the future, they have a pivotal role to play in ensuring the successful deployment of this technology programme.

“We must ensure that the technology we are implementing delivers the right benefits to the system at the right time against a framework of clearly defined common operational and technical standards,” Richard added. “This will require the entire industry to work together and one of my key priorities will be to ensure that the A6 works closely with other important bodies such as IATA, Eurocontrol, the European Commission and the SESAR JU to make that happen.”

Notes to editors

The A6 alliance is formed of the six ANSP members of the SESAR JU – Aena (Spain), DFS (Germany), DSNA (France), ENAV (Italy), NATS (UK) and NORACON – a consortium involving Austro Control (Austria), AVINOR (Norway), EANS (Estonia), Finavia (Finland), IAA (Ireland), LFV (Sweden) and Naviair (Denmark).

Collectively its organisations control over 70% of European air traffic and 72% of the investment in the European Air Traffic Management infrastructure of the future.

What is SESAR?

Single European Sky (SES) is Europe’s response to the challenge faced by the aviation industry and is the research phase of the Single European Sky programme. Launched by the European Union in 2004, the idea is to reform the architecture of European airspace to help meet future safety and capacity needs.

SESAR is the programme that will deliver the technology and procedures that will help deliver Single European Sky. The aim of SESAR is provide an effective remedy to air transport capacity bottlenecks, fill gaps in the air traffic management system, enable significant reduction of  CO² emissions, improve safety, and reduce overall costs. SESAR benefits all EU Member States and extends beyond the air transport industry.

SESAR is expected to shorten average flight duration by 8 to 14 minutes. This will in turn improve the passenger experience, as SESAR will result in flight times shortened by approximately 10% as well as 50% fewer cancellations and delays, an increased predictability and punctuality on arrival and departures. It will also drive a tenfold increase in safety. SESAR will help reduce the impact of aviation on the environment – a net amount of 50 million tonnes of CO2 emissions from 2013 to 2030