European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 24, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A Jar to Emit Arial controllers not regulated by civilian 1485ft military Low flying area Creme i 495 it. Car june 16, 9 20 . 199 aircraft Over West Germany Imogne Jook fed areas i military normally this Chart depicts each of the 199 aircraft subject to positive civilian air traffic control Over West Germany at 9 20 . On june 16, 1988, with the air traffic flowing through precisely defined corridors at different altitudes. Not included in the count Are aircraft at altitudes up to 150 meters 492 feet where police helicopters and gliders Fly. Civilian air traffic controllers do not regulate traffic in the Low Altitude zone used for military flights or in the visual flight rules Var zone up to 750 meters 2,460 feet Altitude. The three air corridors through East Germany to Berlin Are controlled by the world War ii allies Britain France the soviet Union and the United states. The number of aircraft taking off or Landing or on holding patterns Over an Airport is so great that they cannot be distinguished from one another on radar screens. For clarity they have been stacked according to Altitude in the accompanying illustration reprinted from the West German Magazine Stern. Europe unfriendly is Dave Didio air traffic controller monitoring flights at Frankfurt International Airport by David Tarrant and de Reavis staff writers harried air traffic controllers in Greece recently resorted to a temporary hunger strike while passengers in England frustrated by Long flight delays threatened to stage a sit in on a runway. In Dusseldorf West Germany irate travellers did stage a sit in aboard their jetliner after being told their delayed flight could not Complete its trip to Hamburg because the Airport was closed for the night. Congestion in the skies Over Europe is making a mockery of flight schedules and Many air transportation experts Are scanning the heavens for help. Temporary Relief is being found through use of some of the millions of cubic Miles of airspace Over which the military exercises priority. Simply put Western Europe does t have enough runways airports airspace or air traffic controllers to handle the existing civil aviation demand. That has serious implications for the european Community s gradual deregulation of the air travel Industry to be completed by 1992. Europe has no equivalent to the Federal aviation administration in the United states and consequently no body that could supervise a coordinated expansion of air traffic control. Prospects for dealing successfully with the logjam Are poor. Only Munich and possibly Athens Are Likely to have new airports built before the end of the Century and both will merely replace existing highly constrained airports. While strikes Are often the cause of bottle necks sometimes equipment failures shortages of air traffic controllers or Lack of computer capacity Are to blame. Traffic has been much higher than forecast by authorities. Difficulties faced in Spain Greece and Italy during Peak summer months have been severe but West Germany an aviation crossroad has also suffered. The problem has several roots the jump in commercial aircraft flights 16 percent Over last year private aircraft the present Structure of the air traffic control system in Europe and last but not least the airspace reserved for the military of seven nations said detlef Winter director general of civil aviation in the West German ministry of transportation in Bonn in West Germany where air traffic congestion has been causing great problems 70 percent of the airspace Between 500 and 2,000 feet is restricted for Low flying military aircraft. However aircraft within r is zone Are flying according to visual flight rules and do not impede civil aviation pointed out Hans Ulrich Ohl spokesman for West Germany s Federal air traffic control Agency based in Frankfurt. The problems involving airliners arise at the higher altitudes. Generally the military has priority usage of about 30 percent of total West German airspace said Ohl. At the request of civilian authorities the military on occasion releases some of that airspace. Heinz Ruhnau the chairman of the West German airline Lufthansa has said that Europe s skies Are so overcrowded with commercial aircraft that military airspace must be reduced. His assertion is supported by several recent studies. A Survey by the Brussels based european organization for the safety of air navigation or eur control showed a 40 percent increase in delayed flights in 1987 compared to 1986. The Survey taken in june and july 1987, showed a doubling of the average delay per delayed flight to 11 minutes a 106 percent increase Over 1986. Although 1988 surveys Are incomplete the situation is expected to show Little if any improvement. Since the Start of this year Lufthansa s jets have spent More than 4,000 hours in holding patterns Over West German airports alone. The airline estimates that the delays already have Cost More than 100 million Marks or about $55 million in fuel maintenance and wage costs. Instead of a predicted 5 percent increase in air traffic at Frankfurt International Airport for 1988, traffic has increased 16 percent. Frankfurt Airport handles up to 1,100 takeoffs and landings a Day said Ohl there Are times it s tight and stressful for air controllers but manageable. But Well have to learn to live with  the most crowded routes occur in countries which also have Large tracts of airspace reserved for the military West Germany Italy Britain and France said John Brindley a spokesman for the International air transport association in Geneva Switzerland. So when european airline representatives recently held an emergency meeting on air traffic management in Paris they vowed to find ways for their governments to work More closely with National military air traffic control authorities to help ease congestion. Rather than the airlines just sitting there and saying All military space is not being used properly we d like to see More give and take  said. The airline representatives also urged european countries to review As a matter of urgency Airport and air traffic control procedures with a View to increasing capacity at congested airports. Their proposals also included relaxing current night curfews that prohibit flights late at night. But most of the experts agreed that opening up military airspace for commercial air travel could be the fastest Way to help ease the present crisis in the Short run. And a recent series of measures announced by the governments of Italy Germany and Britain May do just that. Changes announced in late july by the West German government  to help ease the problem around Frankfurt Munich and other congested airports. According to the West German plan backups in flights from Frankfurt bound for North Atlantic routes will be eased by allowing jets to use military airspace along the West German and dutch Border. The new routes will allow jetliners to Fly directly to the North sea avoiding heavy congestion Over Southern England. Beginning in mid August six flights per hour from Frankfurt will be allowed to use the new corridor. The new plan also Calls for a reduction in military training airspace around Munich in Southern Germany one of the nation s most crowded air corridors. In Italy the government has opened up six complementary routing through military airspace so commercial planes can avoid the Busy Rome area and save fuel. After negotiations in Britain Between civil and military authorities officials were Able to arrange better departure and arrival times at the Airport in Manchester England and a reduction in the space reserved for the Royal Navy off England s South coast. Advocates of opening up military airspace for commercial use Hope More changes will occur when nato s committee for european space coordination meets in september. For the first time the committee has placed civil air traffic congestion on its Agenda. European air transport officials Are meeting in october to discuss ways that the civilian and military sectors can achieve More cooperation. This country is much too Small and has too much air traffic to have reserved airspace for civilian and military flights Winter said of West Germany. We think one civilian air traffic control system for both civilian and military flights is the Best solution to coordinating maximum use of airspace. And it used to be that Way. But in 1973 civilian air traffic controllers staged a work to Rule slowdown and our defense department started training its own air traffic controllers. Now they Don t want to go Back to relying on civilians so we must find another  several areas in West Germany already Are testing or using full time concepts in which military and civilian air traffic controllers work together. One such project is the so called Sobernheim Model named after the town where it was created in 1983. The Model divides airspace into three categories which include the area immediately around an Airport a larger Section just outside an Airport where planes Fly their climb or descent phase and the larger in route or upper airspace. Civilian and military air traffic controllers work together at the eur control radar traffic control Center in maastricht Netherlands handling All military and civilian air traffic in the upper airspace for Northern Germany Belgium Netherlands and Luxembourg. Originally set up to take Over air traffic control for the entire european Community eur control after two decades of political wrangling Only operates the maastricht Center and has no regulatory authority. Field tests of the Sobernheim Model Are also under Way at radar control centers in Bremen and Dusseldorf where military and civilian controllers work the lower airspace around the airports in those cities. And when a new Frankfurt air traffic control Center goes into operation in 1994, there will be some military controllers working in this Center officials said. But although the idea is encouraging political issues and some longstanding distrust Between military and civilian controllers keep such projects like the Sobernheim Model from becoming More widely accepted in West Germany any time soon said Wolf Liedhegener of the Federal ministry of transportation. It is a very very serious situation right now with respect to overcrowded airspace. They the controllers feel it s not right to introduce new concepts at a time like  by 1992 there will be More airline Competition in Europe than Ever before As the european Community eases government Market controls on entry capacity and tariffs. The crowded situation in european skies probably will get much worse predicted Ohl. Over the last three years there s already been a 40 percent increase in flight  Page 14 the stars and stripes wednesday August 24,1988 the stars and stripes Page 15