This upgrade is long overdue. It should be a Europe wide requirement. There have been Europe wide incidents and accidents that relate to the vulnerability (nonexistence)of dispatch/operational control in Europe. Here are some of them.
• Maersk Air B737, Billund, Denmark, December 1999, encountered severe weather, had outdated weather information, destination and alternates closed; fuel emergency.
• Hapag-Lloyd A310, Vienna, July 2000, experienced aircraft system failure (landing gear unable to retract), flight continued, misjudgement by crew, and poor support by the company, fuel exhaustion, aircraft destroyed.
• Swiss SAAB 2000 Berlin, July 2002, encountered severe weather, destination and alternates closed, fuel exhaustion, aircraft destroyed.
• BMI A321, Over Germany, May, 2003, encountered severe weather/ hail, serious damage, aircraft continued for hundreds of kilometres before landing.
• EasyJet B737 Geneva, August, 2003, encountered severe weather/hail, serious damage.
• SAS A330, Helsinki, October, 2003, continued with no holding fuel into low visibility/missed approach at destination, insufficient fuel for alternate; fuel emergency.
None of these flights had the support of a proper operational control/dispatch system.
Many air carriers in Europe do not even track their flights and have no idea where their flights are and don't have a communication system to advise them of hazardous info if they wanted to.
What they need is:
1. A certified(licensed) and trained flight dispatcher/flight operations officer.
2. A reliable, effective ground to air communications system.
3. The necessary tools to suppprt the flight dispatcher such as information systems, and manuals, etc.
4. The regulatory framework necessary to give the flight dispatcher the responsibility and authority to do their job.
If the regulatory authority wants to prevent errors in judgment as well as errors in poor information to crews, then joint repsonsibility between the pilot-in-command and the flight dispatcher should also be applied. This would ensure a human factors double check on both the flight crew and the flight dispatcher. Similar to requiring multiple hydraulic systems and electrical systems on an aircraft. It is a proven, safer system.
Just my thoughts.
kellmark