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HOLD-UP ON THE GROUND AND IN THE AIR

A regular domestic flight in the summer of 1999: In the morning the Lufthansa Airbus took off in time at Hamburg Airport, however approaching Frankfurt, the aircraft has to "hold". While he performs a loop above the Spessart the captain gives the reason over the intercom, "heavy traffic". Instead of forty minutes the flight lasts almost exactly one hour before touch down at the southern landing strip at Frankfurt Airport. Passengers are used to this and put up with the delay with indifference. No one asks to be given the reason. The weather is perfect and the flight has a fixed slot. Furthermore it is a domestic flight i.e. the pilot does not have to contend with the rigours of Southern European air traffic control centres. The DFS, (German Air Traffic Control), which was founded in 1993, is doing an excellent job above Germany. A study was made in 1998 and when compared with other highly frequented air space it had by far the best record as far as the relationship between air traffic and delays were concerned. This happened despite a rapid increase in all controlled flights. Last year there were 2.32 million, a sizeable expansion compared to 1.55 million in 1990. Air traffic controllers are expecting an increase in their workload by about eight per cent. Every day around 8,000 flights have to be controlled in Germany's skies, which is almost twice as many as in 1992. Although the DFS is highly efficient, there are still delays for domestic flights as was the case from Hamburg to Frankfurt. "That day too many transatlantic flights arrived either before or after the allotted time. There were 56 touchdowns instead of the 43 per hour and the system of runways cannot cope with that kind of demand. This means that many aircraft have to go into holding", Christoph Klingenberg let us know. The graduated mathematician and management consultant has been head of strategic planning at Lufthansa up to now. On 1 June his job description changed and he was asked by the Board of Directors to look into the "delay problem" as part of the quality offensive "Operation Excellence".

This year delays are a problem all over Europe culminating in the worst results for the last ten years. On average 24 per cent of flights in Europe were delayed during the crisis year 1989. This rate was reduced to 13 per cent until 1993. After two erratic increases in 1995 and 1998, the annual average lies at almost 23 per cent. The main reason for this is the immense growth in aviation while the infrastructure around airports has hardly grown to keep up with this development, and air traffic control, which divided according to state boundaries, is inefficient. While aviation grew by about five per cent in the first quarter of 1999, there was an increase in delays of 120 per cent when compared with the previous year. These delays were caused by air traffic control.

"You can compare the situation with travelling on a motorway, where cars are able to drive at a speed of just 80km/h. Even small construction will cause a traffic jam. The same applies to air traffic control," claims Christoph Klingenber. In this case "constructions" were the Kosovo war as well as staffing problems, strikes and changes in the systems at air traffic control in France, Spain, Switzerland and Italy. For the first time the AEA (Association of European Airlines) which is the lobby supporting the interests of scheduled flights, presented a record of delays in the first quarter of 1999 by listing airports. This happened after, at the beginning of the year a long time before the holiday season started, 28.3 per cent of all inter European flights had reached their destination with more than 15 minutes' delay. In March this rate reached a record high of 30.8 per cent. The worst "brake" for traffic flow is the Milan-Malpensa Airport, because it is notorious for disorders anyway, but Munich also rose to the top group because of its close proximity to Italy. Frankfurt did better than the Bavarian Airport as far as delays during take off were concerned. It took the 11th worst place among the 27 airports being analysed.

Alarm bells are ringing everywhere in the business. The General Secretary Karl-Heinz Neumeister warned of "the worst summer of all times". In June Frankfurt Airport complained about the fact that only 69 per cent of all flights were in time. According to airport manager Bernd Struck "everything below 85 per cent is not acceptable". At the holiday airline Hapag Lloyd some days 45 per cent of all flights are delayed. The average rate of delay has more than doubled from three minutes (1998) to seven minutes (1999) and this before the main travel season. As well the situation of Condor "is dramatic", says Managing Director (MD) Dieter Heinen. In May only 60 to 70 per cent of take off and landings were in time, almost three quarters of all delays are blamed on air traffic control. "The only flight to leave Frankfurt in time is the 4:30hrs flight to the Canaries", Heinen reports. For the first time ever passenger complaints about delays exceeded those about loss of baggage. "Delays force us to spend between DM 10 to 15 million more every year. And the trend is growing". Referring to MD Peter Haslebacher the number is 12 to 14 million annually at LTU, not considered the damage caused by image loss. Condor Boss Heinen, "If the customer thinks that the airport is to blame, we are lucky. However, he mostly tries to find faults with the airline". Experts believe that at Lufthansa turnover will suffer because of delays. In 1998 25,000 lt of additional fuel were used and bookings were down, which mean a loss of millions of DM. A travel agent claims that "especially holiday companies are very cautious when it comes to the topic "delays", because travellers in consequence might not even book at all". Airlines in Germany have suffered losses of more than DM 200 million in the first quarter of 1999 alone. This figure was released by the BTW, the Federal Association of German Tourism. Additionally passengers suffered an economic loss of almost DM 800 million.

This situation poses a true dilemma for the airlines. One the one hand they have to fly every day as often as they possibly can, which guarantees their efficiency, on the other hand problems occur through tight flight schedules and quick turn around times. LTU boss Peter Haslebacher explains, "a tight schedule is absolutely necessary for productivity. However, delays have a knock-on effect, and increasingly we have to apply for emergency permission for night landings. Christoph Klingenberg explains that "a third of delays occur because of rotation problems". It has to be said that some of this is definitely the airlines' fault. Lufthansa jets might for example be waiting at Frankfurt Airport until their gate is free, instead of using another free "parking" place. Apart from this the airline is trying to do something constructive about the delays. The same plane does not service Milan-Malpensa twice. "We must be crafty and try to minimise the delay". Ground times should be pared to their optimum as compared with pit stop during formula 1 races. Apart from this aircraft reserves have been increased. Three jets with crew are always on standby in order to help out with extremely delayed flights.

Statistics compiled by the CFMU, the Cenral Flow Management Unit, of the European Air Traffic Control Organisation Eurocontrol, do not hold out much hope for the rest of the year, which means that these measures might be superfluous soon. In March almost 5,000 delayed flights were dealt with, which is a record only achieved or exceeded in the height of summer of the previous year. The CFMU deals centrally in Brussels and Maastricht for smooth air traffic in the whole of Europe and administers the designated air spaces, which were allocated by the national authorities of 28 member states. Every pilot must register his flight and the intended route with the CFMU. He is given a slot and a route. If the air space above France is congested, the central office might send a domestic French flight across German territory. If an aircraft leaves its gate late, because a passenger was dawdling, the pilot has to try to get a new slot. Sometimes this can mean a wait of one to two hours for take off. Klaus-Peter Ludeloff, Head of Department at Eurocontrol, says, "we have increased capacities in Central Europe tremendously and have harmonised many systems since 1989. In May 85 per cent of all European flights were in time. We must not lose sight of this fact". America is not the big idol as is often maintained. "In 1998 14 per cent of all flights were delayed by 15 minutes or more. In Europe there were only eight per cent, "explains Ludeloff.

However, in practise Eurocontrol is seen for many as the main culprit. BTW President Erich Kaub claims, "It is a European authority - clumsy, gigantic and inefficient. The whole structure has to be slimlined and procedures lightened". AEA General Secretary Neumeister goes even further, "Euroconrol institutionalises delays". It should be considered whether the airlines should own air traffic control and run it. They are after all paying for it. It is a fact that Eurocontrol in its current state has reached the limit of any lists of reports. The authority claims to be able to deal with 27,000 flights daily. On 21 May 26,808 flights were registered for the first time. However, this did not remain the only record. In all accumulated delays of all flight amounted to 250,000 min, which corresponds with about 172 days.

The situation is so precarious EU Transport Ministers tackled this topic at a meeting in Luxembourg in mid May. One decisive outcome is that the European Union should become a full member with Eurocontrol, which already has 28 members. The 15 members, who belong to the EU and to Eurocontrol, would thus have to listen to directives from Brussels. The pressure for united action rather than everyone for himself would be greater. Klaus-Peter Ludeloff says, that "the membership of the EU will strengthen Eurocontrol, which is also important psychologically." The determining advantage of membership will be an improved co-ordination of the single interests of the member states. The first step to a united and privatised European air traffic control as it is so vehemently demanded by Lufthansa Boss Jürgen Weber, might have been taken. However, in many countries not even the most rudimentary conditions are in place. In Germany as in Great Britain, Austria and Switzerland air traffic control is partially in private hands. The integration of civil and military air space control in Europe is not yet in place. "These are holy cows, which need to be slaughtered", says Air Traffic Control Veteran Hans Stang: "National sovereignty and the role of the military in air traffic control". It will be possible to achieve a better integration of European air traffic control, even before Frankfurt Airport will be able to widen its system of runways, which will not be achieved before 2007.

From page 38 of FLUG REVUE 8/99