AT FIRST GLANCE, the industrial estate near Maastricht’s out-of-the-way airport, hardly appears the future of civil aviation. But it houses the Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC), where up to 100 air-traffic controllers work at a time to ensure that planes flying high above Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and north-western Germany do not bump into each other. Covering one of Europe’s busiest air spaces, every day its controllers guide 1,200 planes through a 16km (10-mile) gap in Belgium between two military no-flight zones—without any near misses.

Founded in 1972 by Eurocontrol, an intergovernmental agency, MUAC was the world’s first attempt to pool controllers between countries. Still the only such venture, it is one of the most modern and cost-efficient control centres in Europe. That is partly thanks to its use of technology. Pilots and controllers at MUAC, for instance, communicate through digital messages—much faster than speaking over a two-way radio. “Here is the future,” beams John Santurbano, MUAC’s director. It is a future few countries are embracing, though rising congestion is making flight delays and cancellations more common across the world.

The Maastricht exception

MUAC’s control room, alas, is far from typical. Most air-traffic controllers still rely on technologies...