Functional airspace block (FAB) is defined in the

SES SES, S.E.S., Ses and similar variants can refere to: Business and economics * Socioeconomic status * Scottish Economic Society, a learned society in Scotland * SES, callsign of the TV station SES/RTS (Mount Gambier, South Australia) * SES S.A., ...

-2 legislative package, as follows:

A FAB means an airspace block based on operational requirements and established regardless of State boundaries, where the provision of air navigation services and related functions are performance-driven and optimized with a view to introducing, in each functional airspace block, enhanced cooperation among air navigation service providers or, where appropriate, an integrated provider.

In the context of the Single European Sky (SES) regulations of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

and in particular in accordance with Article 8 of the Framework Regulation, the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

has issued a mandate to the

Eurocontrol The European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, commonly known as Eurocontrol (stylised ''EUROCONTROL''), is an international organisation working to achieve safe and seamless air traffic management across Europe. Founded in 1960, Eur ...

Agency for support in the establishment of Functional Airspace Blocks (FABs). The SES-II regulation requires all EU members to be part of a FAB by 2012. All nine FABs have been declared, established and notified to the European Commission:
UK-IRELAND FAB
United Kingdom, Ireland
Danish-Swedish FAB
: Denmark, Sweden
BALTIC FAB
Poland, Lithuania
BLUE MED
Italy, Malta, Greece, Cyprus, (Egypt, Tunisia, Albania, Jordan as observers)
FABCE
(FAB Central Europe): Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina
FABEC
(FAB Europe Central): France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Switzerland
DANUBE
Bulgaria, Romania
NEFAB
(North European FAB): Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Norway
SW FAB
(South-West FAB): Portugal (Lisbon FIR), Spain In 2017 the

European Court of Auditors The European Court of Auditors (ECA; French: ''Cour des comptes européenne'') is one of the seven institutions of the European Union (EU). It was established in 1975 in Luxembourg in order to improve EU financial management. It has 27 members ( ...

determined that the functional airspace blocks have failed to defragment European airspace as they have not been fully implemented, with aircraft still being serviced by a different air navigation provider in each member state with different rules and requirements. This was due to a "lack of commitment on the part of the member states".

References

External links

European Commission Guidance Material for the Establishment and Modification of Functional Airspace Blocks (FAB)
, edition 1.0 of 3 December 2010. Air traffic control in Europe {{aviation-stub