Sztrunga, E. (2015). Horizontal en-route efficiency in the European airspace. Modern Geográfia, 10(2), 69–75.
The dynamically increasing European air traffic, which has economic advantages, has resulted in the gradual saturation of airspace. The quantitative development under the present conditions is not sustainable because of the limited capacity of the airspace. Although during development, for satyak reasons, qualitative developments had to be paid attention to continuously, it did not prove to be satisfactory. In certain areas, air traffic control service, which comes very near to the limit of its ability, is only workable because of the recession in the economy and the declining air traffic. But it is expected that traffic will increase again after the end of the economic crisis, which, under present circumstances, might be able to ensure the safe operation of heavy air traffic only with enormous time-lag, and hence it might hinder economic process. This paper with the data of flights in air traffic assesses the typical flying data regarding space, since the geographical projection of the factors affecting en-route efficiency is closely connected to aeroplanes using European airspace, and their routes, apart from the size of planes and the number of passangers. This study, by exploring the spatial connections, examines the geographical arrangements of route extension and the relation between horizontal en-route efficiency and the social-economical development.
Keywords: air traffic, flight efficiency, horizontal en-route efficiency, airspace