Aviation and the Global Atmosphere

Aviation and the Global Atmosphere
8.2.2.5. Restricted and Military Airspace
The fundamental premise that every state has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory can be traced to the Convention on
International Civil Aviation (ICAO, 1997). States implement restrictions on the use of airspace for a variety of reasons, including technological limitations, political
considerations, security, and environmental concerns. However, by far the most important reason for restricted airspace is to accommodate the needs of states'
military forces. Restricted airspace does not allow aircraft to minimize their emissions by direct routing between two points. Significant regions of airspace are
permanently reserved or restricted, thereby forcing civil air transport to circumnavigate these areas.
The extent of the problem varies by region. In the European region, for example, 24 states are applying the flexible use of airspace (FUA) concept (EUROCONTROL,
1998a). The basis for FUA is that airspace should no longer be considered as either military or civil airspace but should be considered as a continuum, shared in
accordance with user needs and used flexibly on a day-to-day basis. Although national security requirements must be key factors in revising a nation's restricted
airspace allocation, problems related to restricted and military airspace could partly be solved by modernization of the ATM system. Negotiation of overflying rights to
shorten routes would also contribute to solving the problems.
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