'One European sky' Could a single airspace cut CO2 and solve air traffic woes?

For airlines struggling to reconcile their stated aims of cutting carbon emissions and making billions from flying ever more passengers, one target has emerged repeatedly for their projected frustration: the air traffic control services that manage Europe's skies.

- Gwyn Topham

Irritation through years of strikes in Europe that upended peak season schedules turned to rage last year when a glitch in the UK's National Air Traffic Services (Nats) system grounded planes, leaving airlines to pick up the tab. Another festering sore for airlines is the supposed inefficiency of a system that runs European airspace based on the borders far below.

The chief executive of Tui told the BBC this week that the travel company had calculated it could avoid 10% of emissions if there was an "effective flight organisation over Europe". Sebastian Ebel told Radio 4: "A decision is needed that there is one European sky." Willie Walsh, the head of the airlines body Iata, has also said a single operator could reduce CO2 from flying by about 10% "almost overnight".

One airspace would allow planes to fly straighter routes; instead, there is an invisible patchwork of sovereign skies under the control of myriad national operators. Andrew Charlton of Aviation Advocacy, a Geneva-based consultancy, said: "The US, Canada and Australia are enormous areas with one air traffic control agency. In Europe, you've got 43.