Network Manager Annual Report 2020

The year 2020 was unlike any we have experienced before in aviation. The unprecedented COVID-19 crisis has affected the entire aviation industry from airlines and airports to air navigation service providers (ANSPs) and the entire supply chain. The COVID-19 pandemic had certainly tested one of the principal strands of the EUROCONTROL Network Manager (NM) DNA - to coordinate the network response in a crisis. NM, in partnership with all stakeholders, and with the support of the European Aviation Crisis Coordination Cell (EACCC), has coordinated the network response to the COVID-19 crisis and has developed crisis response measures.

The NM responded to the COVID-19 crisis with cost-saving measures. Long-term investments have to be safeguarded, as this is the only way to ensure that the NM systems will meet the post-crisis requirements. The NM and the governing bodies agreed to retain those business initiatives which provide a long-term improvement in the delivery of operations and services in order to meet future performance targets in a cost-efficient manner, including among other business initiatives: 

• The airspace re-structuring programme;
• Operational excellence programme;
• integrated Network Manager (iNM) programme.

The NM Annual Report for 2020 also provides information about Budgetary matters, investment, expenditure and revenues, network performance and the activities of the NM per function, including network:

• monitoring, reporting and infrastructure sharing, 
• planning,
• operations,
• crisis management,
• interference and
• safety, scarce resources management.

You can also find information about network strategic planning and challenges for the future.