The next European Air Transport Symposium will take place in Eindhoven (Netherlands) on 18-19 October 2011, hosted by the European Air Transport Command (EATC). This symposium will be dedicated in the first place to aircrews to exchange lessons learned, ideas/views on structures, processes and procedures in order to increase interoperability between the different tactical airlift operators. Other interested airlift actors will also join the discussions.

On 18 October, the symposium will be dedicated to Air Transport operations related briefings and discussions in plenary session. The second day, 19 October, will be organised in syndicates’ sessions examining specific subjects.

Background:

The European Air Transport Fleet (EATF) partnership aims at developing concrete solutions to increase the efficiency of all existing and future air transport assets made available by the participating Member States (pMS) for military needs and optimization of airlift organisations and structures through far-reaching coordination.
In the framework of the European Air Transport Fleet initiative the Ad-Hoc Working Group (AWPG) Operations and Training Tactical Air Transport (O&T TAT) has been established to address the following airlift issues:
a. Identify common issues, problems encountered and lessons learned in recent operations and training missions.
b. Achieve a far reaching level of interoperability between tactical airlift users in the area of operations and training.
c. Elaborate short, medium and long term deliverables, useful to the tactical airlift community.

To achieve these objectives, the Working Group decided the organisation of a European Air Transport Training flying event and a European Air Transport Symposium on a yearly basis. The 2010 symposium, organised by EDA and convened at its premises on 16 December 2010, was very much welcomed by all the participants.