The genesis of cost-efficiency based European airspace fragmentation

When it comes to discussion about the efficiency of the Air Traffic Management (ATM) system in Europe, European airspace fragmentation is frequently mentioned as a barrier limiting further efficiency improvement of the ATM system. Thereby, European airspace fragmentation can be studied from multiple different aspects. It can be analyzed from organizational, operational, technical, functional or performance-based aspects. All this fragmentation aspects have their pros and cons. For example, from an operational aspect, fragmenting airspace into smaller patterns (sectors) is normal operational practice (performed in order to adjust demand with capacity), while from a performance-based aspect highly fragmented airspace is not preferred. In spite of, the European airspace fragmentation is mainly considered as the negative feature. By analyzing the situation from 1998 till 2020 this paper aims to answer the research question of whether and how European airspace is fragmented from the cost-efficiency aspect. Thereby, the research is based on the examination of the spatiotemporal autocorrelation structures of the European airspace. After their determination, their spatial and temporal variability level was also studied. As research findings indicate that, from a performance-based aspect, fragmentation of European airspace is dynamic and heterogeneous in both space and time, they were placed in a wider context. Accordingly, the genesis of cost-efficiency-based European airspace fragmentation is placed in the context of the conceptual framework of currently applicable strategic planning practice whereby their causal relationship was identified.