The Single European Sky (SES) is an ambitious initiative launched by the European Commission in 2004 to reform the architecture of European ATM. It proposes a legislative approach to meet future capacity and safety needs at a European rather than local level.

The key objectives of the SES are:

• To restructure European airspace as a function of air traffic flows
• To create additional capacity
• To increase the overall efficiency of the air traffic management system.

In order to fulfil these objectives, the European Commission set the following High-Level Goals

• Enable a 3-fold increase in capacity which will also reduce delays both on the ground and in the air
• Improve safety by a factor of 10
• Enable a 10% reduction in the effects flights have on the environment
• Provide ATM services to the airspace users at a cost of at least 50% less