Navigation (EUROCONTROL) takes pride in the fact that it has undeniably contributed to the development of air navigation in Europe over the last 40 years. Contrary to what its name suggests at first sight, safety is not the only aspect of air navigation addressed by our Organisation. It is of course, and must remain, the most important aspect, but we have also been mandated to work in many other areas. For example, one of our key activities is ensuring that the constant increase in air traffic can be accommodated without the risk of dangerously overloading the air traffic control system. This is what we refer to as increasing the capacity of the system as a whole. In order to achieve this, we need to be active at every level: development strategy, design, coordination, support for the introduction of new operating procedures and equipment, regulation, etc. We are even active at institutional level in order to ensure that the right decisions are taken by the right bodies at the right time and – above all – to ensure that these decisions are viable so that they are acceptable across the board. To this end, we work together with all those involved in the air navigation system, not just the airlines – who were the ones you probably thought of first. Having first ensured that airspace is less crowded - or, more precisely, that the system is able to accommodate more traffic - we are now working on the airport component. This new activity for EUROCONTROL is paramount, as airport congestion is becoming a significant source of delay. Since it is not easy for national, regional or local authorities to extend the surface area of airports and operating hours are tending to become more restricted as a result of environmental pressure, solutions must be sought elsewhere, and with the relevant parties. From an outsider’s perspective, however, airports represent a wide range of institutional arrangements. Some elements of airport operations may be under the aegis of the State, while others are the responsibility of a purely commercially oriented company; such a mixture is fairly common. One of the objectives of EUROCONTROL’s work, in coordination with the relevant airport authorities, is to help to rationalise the use of infrastructure which is directly related to air navigation. This entails addressing airport-related environmental issues and carrying out specific research and development. We have a crucial advantage - we are probably the only body capable of offering a global vision which incorporates to maximum effect the airport component in the chain comprising all the individual air navigation links. We call this approach the ‘gate-to-gate’ concept. Even though their status often differs from one country to the next, airports have a common aim - to achieve economic development while ensuring that this does not have unacceptable adverse secondary effects. EUROCONTROL is going to help them do this, without prejudicing competition. A day may even come when sites for new airports in Europe will be chosen on the basis of a community decision - a tempting thought, at least from the operational and general economic viewpoints, but not yet an option. The ‘Airports’ pages of the EUROCONTROL website will give you a very good overall idea of what airports and EUROCONTROL have already begun to achieve together, and what we still aim to achieve. Users will be the big winners from such cooperation, but local residents must not suffer as a result.