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The High Level Sectors Project aims to enhance the ways in which air traffic moves between Irish and UK airspace at cruising altitude. This cooperative initiative is part of the UK-Ireland Functional Airspace Block (FAB) which in turn is a component part of the overarching Single European Sky (SES) Project and involves project teams from the IAA and UK NATS.

An underlying goal of the FAB is to provide added value to airspace customers by focusing on operational integration and the creation of a single continuum for air traffic management. This collaboration between the IAA and NATS will bring real benefits to airline customers in that it will enable them to secure more optimal route profiles, which will in turn lower their fuel costs and CO2 emissions.

In the initial stages, the High Level Project Team drew up a number of airspace designs that involved direct routes through the FAB airspace that maximise cooperation between the air traffic control centres in Shannon, London and Prestwick.

The Project Team are now set to progress to the simulation phase, with two ambitious simulations planned in October and November. The main objectives of the simulations are to:

• Increase the region’s network capacity by 5%
• Generate fuel savings of 57,000kg per week
• Generate CO2 savings of 182,000kg per week
• Reduce aircraft track miles by 4,000nm per week
• Demonstrate that the revised airspace is at least as safe as the airspace it replaces

The first simulation will focus on the interface areas between the current Shannon and London West sectors. It will involve Shannon controlling parts of London airspace and vice versa. The second will aim to build on the principles of the first and will involve cooperation between Shannon, London and Prestwick and cover the areas of the London Lakes, overhead Dublin and Rathlin.

The findings of the simulations will be presented to the IAA and NATS FAB Management Board at the end of 2012. The Management Board will then evaluate the results to establish concrete measures that can be implemented in the short to medium term that will greatly improve the service that we provide and bring increased efficiencies to our customers.

This project is co-funded by the European Commission Trans European Network Transport (TEN-T) fund, the IAA and NATS.