FAA and EU officials signed a letter of intent to extend an air traffic modernization agreement designed to ensure a smooth transition for aircraft flying between the U.S. and Europe. FAA Administrator Michael Huerta and the EC’s director general for mobility and transport, Joao Aguiar Machado, held a signing ceremony June 18 during the Paris Air Show.

“Today’s signing validates the collaborative work that began three years ago and confirms our commitment to enhance our relationship even further,” Huerta said. The FAA added that the letter builds on the U.S. and EU commitment to harmonize air traffic technologies and procedures.

Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc noted the EU and U.S. share common objectives in modernizing air traffic and are having success with the cooperation on Sesar and NextGen.  “Now that we are both heading toward deploying new systems, I fully support the idea that we should explore the possibility to extend this excellent cooperation to all phases of ATM modernization,” Bulc said. “That's the change in culture that will take global ATM systems into the future."

The FAA and EU originally signed a memorandum of cooperation in 2011 and have been collaborating on the interoperability of avionics, communications protocols and procedures and operational methods under NextGen and Sesar. The latest agreement would cover collaboration on the deployment and implementation of NextGen and Sesar activities.