What EU airport regulators can and should learn from SEPA

"The European single sky". In the wake of the volcanic ash disaster that brought European skies to a standstill, experts are calling for a more united approach across Europe's aviation regulators.

The handling of airport closures across Europe highlighted the fragmented approach that exists among European governments, airport regulators and air traffic control. Commentators now suggest that  a more harmonised approach to air traffic control and airport safety across the EU is needed.

What has this got to do with transaction banking, you may ask? Well efforts to unite Europe's skies reminded me about efforts to unite European payments under the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) initiative. And if SEPA is anything to go by airport regulators could have their job cut out for them.

Of course, SEPA not only tried to harmonise existing European payment schemes, but instead proposed replacing them with new pan-European schemes for cross-border credit transfers and direct debits, which end users have been slow to adopt. No one is proposing a new EU-wide airport traffic control system per se, but linking airport traffic control systems across Europe does present its challenges, and one can already hear the national politicking and objections that are likely to emerge as different national regulators and interests jockey for position.

Europe may have a single currency, but it appears that the EU is far from united when it comes to most other things and EU-wide payment mechanisms or airport traffic control systems, are no exception. While these concepts may sound good on paper, in reality they are difficult to implement and are often hijacked or impeded by parochial interests.