Air traffic control policy framework advancements vis-à-vis regional airports

Economic, social and territorial cohesion is one of the EU’s main objectives. Many smaller communities and remote regions (e.g. Azores) rely on air services for a variety of purposes like access to core regions. Policymakers have understood the contribution of air connectivity to economic growth and therefore ‘subsidise’ ‘non-commercial’ routes to remote regions. Air transport may be the only means of transportation in remote and outmost regions, thus providing social inclusion and access to social services (Efthymiou and Papatheodorou, 2015). Around 45% of Norway and 35% of Greece are considered as Predominantly Rural Remote (PRR) and 45% of Ireland and Poland and 43% of Finland are Predominantly Rural Close (PRC) to a city regions (Brezzi et al., 2011). In Europe, a number of countries have poor road and rail infrastructure to certain regions due to geomorphology or weather conditions. The high number of inhabited islands in Greece make impossible the development of rail and road infrastructure to those islands, where communities are suffering from geographical discontinuity (Efthymiou and Papatheodorou, 2015) and thus are more dependent on marine and air transport. Moreover, the awkward geography of a country and sparse population (e.g. in Norway) can increase the reliance of the population on air transport (Lian, 2010). Thus, connectivity of remote and core regions in many cases cannot be achieved with road or rail transportation and emphasis has been given to air transport in the form of Public Service Obligations (PSOs) in many cases.