...but not until Europe gets over its long-drawn reluctance to put the Single European Sky initiative into force.

The sky’s the limit...

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/16102876/n001-121015-001-en_mf.srt

But just take a look at Europe’s network for  commercial aircraft routes across Europe,

and bouncing from one country’s air traffic  control team to another’s.

Step forward  the Single European Sky initiative,

to remove routing and  air traffic control inefficiencies

that cost an estimated 5 billion euros a year,  much of that met by passengers.

The problem, as the EU’s Transport  Commissioner recently warned,

is that the slow implementation  renders the whole initiative ineffective.

He threatened legal action against  some Member States dragging their feet.

but I completely agree  with the Commissioner.

because whatever is put in,  ten times more than that will come back.

The Single European Sky creates nine  functional airspace zones for the 27 states.

They're supposed to be fully functional  at all heights of a plane’s flight,

reducing the time of  a flight of 800 km by 15 minutes.

Add those up in air space  as densely used as Europe’s

We need single European space, and this  should be done, can be done, very quickly.

So, shorter time to fly and even,  at the end, smaller prices.

There’s the environmental question too.

The longer the journey,  the bigger the CO2 emissions.

If you acknowledge what we are doing  to reduce CO2 emissions,

how many billions we're investing to reduce  one or two per cent of the CO2 emissions,

that is the cheapest way  to save the environment.

For many the single sky dream  is starting to wear thin.

The Commissioner’s threats and  a vote at next week’s plenary session