The 4th SW FAB Council was celebrated last March 12th, 2014 in Lisbon with the participation of the civil and military aeronautical authorities from both States as well as the SW FAB Supervisory Authority Committee (SAC) and Operational Board (SFOB) representatives.The main goals of the meeting were to assess the SW FAB implementation status and to outline the next activities to be undertaken in the coming months.

Special attention by the Council was paid to the implementation of the SW FAB Operational Board Common Plan 2014-2020 and its first monitoring report.

This plan developed by the OB and endorsed by the SAC was approved by the SW FAB Council in November 2013. The SW FAB Common Plan (CP) is a compilation of projects related to the improvement of the air navigation service provision inside the SW FAB airspace and among the surrounding airspaces, such as collateral FABs (FABEC) and third countries airspaces (Morocco, and Algeria).

The SW FAB CP was prepared by the Operational Coordination Committee (OCC) -a Committee under the responsibility of the OB- and using the operational and technical information provided by the Airspace Working Group (AWG) and the Technical Working Group (TWG). In this way information included in the SW FAB CP was provided by NAV Portugal, Aena, Portuguese Air Force (PAF), Spanish Air Force (SPAF), Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (IPMA) and Agencia Estatal de Meteorología (AEMET).

The work described in the plan is organised in three main areas: Airspace Management Optimisation; Infrastructure Harmonisation; and European Network Planning (contribution and enhancement).

The successful implementation of these projects in the horizon 2014-2020 shall increase the safety, capacity, environment and cost-efficiency performances of the air traffic within the SW FAB airspace by providing greater flexibility and financial and operational benefits to the airspace users –optimised trajectories, emissions and fuel burn reduction, less delays, etc.-.

The first SW FAB CP monitoring report was presented in the 4rd Council meeting by the OB. The advance and first achieved results in the projects were in general considered satisfactory. The report was approved by the Council.

Also, the SW FAB Council members verified the progress of the Supervisory Authorities Committee (SAC group) whose second meeting took place on March 11th, 2014 with the main goal to approve the ToR’s of each of the four Standing Working Groups (WG) created under the umbrella of the SAC: Safety, Harmonisation, Performance and Meteo. This second SAC meeting permitted to define a roadmap of activities of the different WG’s.

The draft of the 2013 Annual Report was also presented during the meeting for the review and approval of the Council. This SW FAB report presents the main activities developed by the different committees and working groups in 2013.