GENERAL INFORMATION
General aviation in the EU is a diverse and dynamic sector undergoing rapid changes. It involves a wide spectrum of aircraft ranging from gliders to complex business jets and provision of high value services such as aerial works or emergency and business door-to-door transportation. It constitutes an important part of the EU aeronautical industry.
Until recently, addressing the specificities of general aviation at the EU level was not necessary. However, with the extension of the Community competences in aviation safety and security, upgrade of the Single European Sky and growing concerns about environmental impacts of aviation, EU activities have an increasing relevance also for this sector.
General aviation in Europe comprises mainly small and medium sized enterprises or not-for-profit organisations having limited resources to keep up with the ongoing regulatory changes. Proportionality of regulations is therefore of the utmost importance for this sector.
On the industrial side, EU general aviation industry is breaking out to the world markets in an unprecedented way. That momentum needs to be sustained by proper regulation and stimulation of innovation and research.
Despite technological developments, general aviation is affecting the environment and like the wider airline industry or any other transport means, needs to contribute to reducing these impacts.
To address these challenges the European Commission, following broad consultations, adopted on 11 January 2008 its Communication "An Agenda for Sustainable Future in General and Business Aviation".
The agenda was accepted by the European Parliament February 3rd 2009 as a resolution which among other things
- calls on the Commission to reinforce support for aeronautical research, development and innovation, in particular by SMEs that develop and build aircraft for general and business aviation
- Reminds the Commission of the need to carry out, on a systematic basis, segmented impact assessments to provide for differentiation of regulations affecting different categories of undertakings and airspace users, if necessary and in so far as this does not compromise safety;
- Urges the Commission and Member States to implement measures for optimizing the use of existing capacity at major and regional airports by better planning and through the deployment of modern technologies, such as foreseen in the Commission Action Plan for airport capacity, efficiency and safety in Europe ("the Commission's Action Plan");
- Encourages Member States and regional and local authorities to invest in the modernization and establishment of small and medium-sized airports, which are of major importance for general and business aviation;
- Encourages the Member States to invest in specific infrastructure necessary for the operation and stationing of aircraft in the field of general and business aviation;
- Believes that helicopters can be an important short-haul means of connecting between airports and urges the Commission and Member States to include them in capacity-enhancing strategies;
General Aviation and European Air Transport System - Third Call FP 7
In answer to the Commission Communication on General and Business Aviation the workshop "General Aviation and European Air Transport System - Third Call FP 7" is organized July 7th-8th 2009, in Warsaw Poland.
One of its main objectives is discussion on future European Air Transport System based on small aircraft.
During the workshop all European stakeholders will have an opportunity:
- to discuss on research priorities from GA_ATS and GA perspective, which could also provide a feedback for the future Work Programme documents of FP7
- to present project ideas for the 3rd Call in Aeronautics in order to elaborate proposals of CSA-SA and L1 type which would incorporate both ideas and potential beneficiaries from all countries interested in GA related research.
Remark: The workshop will give the opportunity to select the most interesting ideas for proposals which should increase "success rate" during evaluation.
You should remember that almost each area of aeronautics part in Transport Theme of FP7 can be dedicated to General Aviation (e.g. small aircraft). The other thing is that in aeronautics we have an Era-Net scheme (i.e. AirT-Net) which gives an opportunity to implement research activities that are part of national research programs. This means that if some project ideas presented during the workshop do not fit to 3rd call (or other calls) can be implemented via calls of AirT-Net.
- to contribute to a general overview of current situation of GA from the perspective of manufacturers and aircraft operators as well as an overview of research related to GA (SESAR, collaborative research projects such as EPATS, CESAR, SOFIA, PPlane, etc.)
- to discuss on potential future developments based on e.g. feedback from EASA and European Civil Aviation Conference (the study requested by the EC).
- other
More detailed analysis of the European Resolution on General Aviation gives also an opportunity to wider collaboration within European GA community
see for more information. Be creative and suggest a topic
Do not loose chance, get involved and come to Warsaw.
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