THE UK's National Air Traffic Service (Nats) has commissioned a study into the technical and regulatory implications of sharing control of airspace with the Irish Aviation Authority.

The study is the organisation's first major step towards realising the European Commission's Single European Sky (SES) initiative, which aims to harmonise air traffic control across the continent (Computing 5 February, 2004).

Nats has appointed specialist consultancy Helios Technology to investigate the issues involved in establishing a 'functional airspace block' (Fab).

The study will identify the operational, technical, financial and regulatory aspects of such a move, as well as providing a template for future Fab assessments.

The primary obstacles are expected to be regulatory rather than technical, because the two organisations already share substantial volumes of flight data from shared agreements over oceanic airspace.

Nats chief executive Paul Barron says that accomplishing a simplified SES with common standards requires a series of achievable milestones.

'To me, Fabs, common systems and standards, and relationships with neighbouring providers are the most sensible first bites,' he said.

Philip Butterworth-Hayes, an air traffic control expert at Jane's Information Group, says the move is a logical one for Nats. 'In 2004, the European Commission designated the airspace above the EU as a common airspace area, which will eventually be redesigned on the basis of where the traffic is, not where the borders are,' he said. 'This means redrawing sectors in the sky into functional airspace blocks.'

Butterworth-Hayes says cost savings of as much as 70 per cent could be achievable in Europe, although difficult. Barron is similarly cautious. 'I struggle to understand how 35 countries can shrink to 10 lumps of airspace, knowing what we all know about human nature and sovereignty,' he told an air traffic control conference last week.

But similar agreements are already being established. The four Nordic states are working to set up a single air traffic control centre, while a single centre controls the airspace over Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and parts of Germany.