"We will take every possible action to make the single European sky a reality," he said. "At a time of economic crisis we cannot afford to live with the status quo." At stake was a bid to redesign the EU's 27 national airspaces into nine sectors and to have these - known as Functional Airspace Blocs (FABs) - fully operational by Tuesday.
If the EU were to succeed in re-designing its airspace, it could triple its airspace capacity, improve safety ten-fold, slash pollution by 10 percent and reduce air traffic management costs by 50 percent, the Commission said. US airspace in comparison is roughly the same size as Europe's. But where Europe has more than 30 air navigation service providers, there is just one in the United States, which serves twice as many flights at around the same cost. In an angry statement, the European airline industry also condemned EU states.
"The current situation is scandalous," said the Association of European Airlines (AEA) in a joint statement with regional and low fare companies as well as the International Air Carrier Association (IACA). "We are dismayed that lack of political will by member states has stalled any hoped-for progress," it said. "We therefore urge Transport Commissioner Kallas to follow up on his warning ... and launch infringement procedures against defaulting states."
"The costs of congestion and delays in the air are paid for on a daily basis by European citizens and business," said Kallas. "Right now the implementation of the reform of Europe's airspace is falling seriously behind," Kallas said. "A critical deadline has been missed. There is no other option but to strongly enforce EU law." It was not his first threat of taking legal action against EU governments, but this time the European Commission pledged it would "proceed shortly by sending letters of formal notice to all parties concerned."
An EU source said that the letters, the first step in infringement proceedings, would be sent in February or March. No details were available on the names of the "many" member states slammed for "seriously lagging behind" in efforts to get the scheme going. But last month the Commission said that only five nations - Belgium, Denmark, Lithuania, Luxembourg and the Netherlands - were on track to meet cost cutting targets and improving flight capacity. The commission estimates that the current patchwork system of national airspace results in an additional cost to airlines of around five billion euros ($6.4 billion) a year.