Eurocontrol Inaugurates New CFMU Ops Room

Eurocontrol inaugurated its new CFMU (central flow management unit) operations room last week, which was designed to increase needed space and to consolidate and synergize some of its functions.

CFMU was introduced in Europe over ten years ago with a mandate to optimize capacity and reduce delays. Today, more than 30,000 flights daily are affected by the CFMU's functionality, and on some days even more flights are handled - such as June 29, 2007, when 33,480 flights were managed.

According to Eurocontrol, the three essential functions of the CFMU are to centralize all European flight plans, provide real-time information on airspace and infrastructure across the continent, and manage its airspace flow and capacity, with its Integrated Flight Plan System.

Eurocontrol's Director General Victor Aguado highlighted the CFMU's importance when he said recently that, "A very plausible scenario is that delays would more than triple if we were to operate based on five regional centers, as we did before 1996, with a cost to airspace users of €1.5 billion [$2.04 billion] a year."  07-09-2007.

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