On the 27th of June 2013, the SESAR JU celebrated the departure of Patrick Ky to the European Aviation Safety Agency with a high-level farewell cocktail. The cocktail was not only an opportunity for the SESAR programme partners to praise their common achievements since the programme was launched in 2007 but also provided the backdrop for SESAR to launch its 2012 Annual Report. The SESAR JU’s Annual Report 2012 can be downloaded here.

Vice-President Kallas of the European Commission started off the speeches by saying “Today is a very moving day, but not a sad day as we are happy that Patrick will stay in the SESAR family.” He later added that “Patrick has made an immense personal contribution to develop this project and on behalf of the European Commission, I would sincerely like to thank Patrick for his work surrounding the preparation and development of the SESAR Programme.”

This sentiment was echoed by Antonio Cancian, Member of the European Parliament (MEP), who expressed the following “Patrick, you have achieved the impossible! You have delivered ATM solutions and improvements for the first time in 50 years. Moreover, you have done so by creating the first successful European Public Private Partnership –putting Europe on the global map of innovation… If your success at SESAR is anything to go by, it makes the future very bright for Europe aviation.”

“Patrick is the Haut Couturier of ATM: he has been able to get everyone working together. I wish you luck and to thank you for all that you have done and the strong collaboration that we have had.” Matthias Ruete, Director-General for Mobility and Transport (DG Move), European Commission

Finally, founding member Eurocontrol’s Director-General, Frank Brenner, expressed his gratitude by saying “Thank you for the wonderful job you did, the start-up that you managed, the time you led this dynamic organisation and the results that you have achieved.”

Indeed, Patrick Ky stressed that SESAR is “Europe’s most complex R&D programme, involving 17 partners, 120 companies and 3,000 experts in 29 countries” and that this is something that all the partners and stakeholders of SESAR should be immensely proud of. On closing the event, Patrick Ky said “My greatest feeling today is a feeling a pride. Just to see you all here together proves that we are the SESAR family and that is what I hope I will be remembered for when people look at SESAR.”

The event also served as the occasion to announce that Mr Claude Chêne, a former Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Personnel and Administration, will be appointed as Executive Director ad interim of the SJU from the 1 September until the new Executive Director is appointed.