European Commission recalls five European countries to abolish airspace borders

The European Commission has threatened to take Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Germany and the Netherlands to the EU Court of Justice if these countries do not gather their air spaces into a single common block, the Belgian press reported on Friday.

The Commission gives them two months to demonstrate that the necessary steps are taken, according to the Belga agency.

Such a reorganization would end the planes zigzag between different national spaces and thus make the journeys cheaper and cleaner, said the agency.

Maintaining borders in airspace causes detours of nearly 42 km on average per flight, according to the Commission.

For several years, the European Commission asks its members to abolish state borders in airspace. Initially, the 28 airspaces should be streamlined into nine regional blocks.

The five European countries should, in late 2012, already come together in one common block (FABEC). But this is not yet fully implemented. Endit