The annual air traffic growth rate of 5% and higher was nearly constant over the last decade and IATA forecasts the same or even higher rate for the coming years. As a consequencethe capacity overload of current airports and the demand for point-to-point connections even to destinations away from existing airports has considerably grown. Looking to the huge ocean and lake shores and the huge number of islands in Europe which were considerably increased by the new EC member states it must be recognised that there is a great potential for an international air traffic system using seaplanes and amphibians. With these vehicles new traffic routes can be developed with the advantage of short flights and the use of natural landing strips. By using amphibians point to point connections from shorelines to national and international airports can be realised, too. But scheduled commuter seaplane or amphibian operations are only available in a very few locations in Europe, at present. Operators and entrepreneurs interested in starting new seaplane businesses in Europe report about missing modern airplanes, missing international standards and rules and missing expertise of various stakeholders. Based on this preliminary analysis the proposal aims to investigate the today’s seaplane situation and to evaluate the weaknesses and strengths and to elaborate a set of concepts and requirements for a future seaplane air transportation system for “Improving passenger choice in air transportation” including technical requirements for “new vehicles”.

The general objective of the FUSETRA project is to demonstrate the needs and to quantify the potential of seaplane traffic business development, and to propose recommendations for the introduction of new seaplane/amphibian transportation system, in the context of the European Research Area like the improvement of passenger’s/customer’s choice for better time and cost efficient travel and transport. The main objectives are:

• Identification of possibilities to improve seamless travelling by implementation of seaplane transportation systems within the European air- & landside  transportation infrastructure (connectivity of possible seaplane harbours to other means of transportation)
• Development of solutions which are ready for implementation by ensuring passenger acceptance (Evidence of seamless travel, flight time reduction, reduced operational cost, reduced travel charges, operational safety, better access to international air traffic)
• Identification of reduced environmental impact of air transport by developing solutions for point-to-point seaplane operations (De-congestion of major airports, seaplane routes over uninhabited areas).
• Propositions for enabling uniform implementation (EC wide) of the chosen seaplane
  operational system (Regulatory issues, water landing fields, etc).
• Improvement of the accessibility of regions by serving business as well as private mobility by new seaplane/amphibian connection
• Identification of number of seaplanes or amphibians needed to replace existing aeroplanes, and needed to satisfy the potential new demand.
• Improvement of trans-national co-operation by organising international workshops

FUSETRA will contribute substantially to the objectives of the EC policies, society and the scientific and technical objectives of the aeronautics priority in particular by organizing international workshops and by inviting all relevant stakeholders as political and public authorities, decision makers, research communities, industries. FUSETRA will contribute to the integration of old and new EC member states. The venues of Greece and Poland were intentionally chosen as being an ideal location to integrate the new member states in South-East and North-East Europe. This procedure supports building networks and tight cooperation’s, too; and allows a wide distribution of crucial information on FP7. Partners and stakeholders of the new and old member states will have the possibility to network and to give examples of their experience and achievements by giving papers or participating in working groups with specific work packages. Seaplane operators and industrial stakeholder are mainly small and medium-sized enterprises. The workshops and the technical objective to prepare an action plan and road map for future seaplane traffic systems will be particularly addressed to those  companies. FUSETRA is directly linked to the vision 2020 of the aeronautical strategy ACARE. Two objectives of the ACARE research agenda are in the focus of this proposal. With new concepts for sea parks and scheduled flights of Seaplane/amphibian operations and its integration to the sea/air/land transport chain, this proposal will contribute to “novel solutions for efficient airport use and connecting air transport to the overall transport system” and will “increase the time efficiency of air transport”.