Organized by the SW FAB Council, the first Stakeholders Consultation Forum (SCF) of the SW FAB took place last 2nd of June 2015 in Lisbon with the participation of the Airspace Users, ATC and Pilots professional staff associations and European Institutions.

The Forum demonstrated the importance of sharing ideas and projects within the aeronautical community.All interventions allowed to identify the excellent collaboration between all SW FAB partners, which have permitted to give the first steps towards a more efficient, and client guided, service provision in the South West of Europe airspace.

The great effort of the SW FAB initiative in extending its horizontal scope beyond the SW FAB airspace limits, was recognized. Inter-FAB and cross border collaboration with third countries is an essential principle, principle on which the SW FAB en-route ANSPs and several CAAs started to work in 1991 and 1996 (under the framework of the EFP Plan –España, France and Portugal– and AEFMP Plan –Algeria, España, France, Morocco and Portugal–, respectively), and that has been recently promoted by the Network Manager, to improve the performance of the Europe wide network, at all levels, in order to create a more integrated European airspace.

The Airspace Users and the Network Manager appreciated the implementation of the free route airspace concept in Lisbon and in the north west of the Spanish airspace and encouraged the SW FAB to continue the collaboration with FABEC and ONDA Morocco to extend the SW FAB free route concept to the airspace under their responsibility.

The success of the Forum, and the ANAC´s organization of this event, in order to better satisfy our customers’ needs, was highly recognized by the stakeholders.

Next, are identified some of the opinions of the stakeholders during the Forum:

Mr. Javier Valdés, IATA country manager in Spain and Portugal, appreciated all the information provided by the SW FAB along the SCF, mostly in special for the great development and effort of the SW FAB initiative since its implementation.

Mr. Dimitris Apsouris, Eurocontrol NM, indicated that the NM appreciates all the efforts of the SW FAB and its significant contribution to the enhancements of the network performance. He also remarked the strategy of the SW FAB to extend its operational projects beyond the scope of the SW FAB airspace boundaries, with its excellent contribution for the performance of the network. The NM appreciated the huge effort of the SW FAB to extend the free route airspace concept to FABEC (France DSNA airspace), Morocco and Santa Maria Oceanic airspace.

Mr. Mark Deacon, International Air Carrier Association (IACA) representative, also welcomed the operational projects being part of the SW FAB OB Common Plan, which are already being part of the Eurocontrol network catalogue inside of the RNSDG group. Among all operational projects, he highlighted the development of the free route cross border interface with Brest and the improvement of the interface with Marseille. The members of IACA represent one of the biggest users of Portuguese and Spanish airspace so the invitation to attend the Stakeholders Consultation Forum was very much appreciated. Mr. Mark Deacon recommended greater Airspace Users involvement in the FAB.

Mr. Francis Richards, Easyjet/ELFAA representative, reinforced the positive opinion commented by IACA and also requested a close collaboration between SW FAB and the users in the development of the operational projects. He highlighted the excellent collaboration between the civil and military representatives inside the SW FAB.