COLOGNE, April 23 – The rules defining the requirements for Air Traffic Management and Air Navigation Services (ATM/ANS) in Europe have been revised to facilitate the uniform application of global standards within Europe, the culmination of a multi-year effort by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to deliver clarity for its stakeholders, in particular the EU Member States.
Standards for ATM/ANS are set globally by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). The Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/469, which enters into force on April 23, 2020 transposes the relevant ICAO provisions into the EU regulatory framework. This contributes to their implementation throughout the EU, and supporting EU Member States in fulfilling their obligation stemming from the Chicago Convention.
The new rules will become applicable gradually, from 5 November 2020 until 27 January 2022.
The main elements of the new legislation can be summarised as follows:
- Part-ATS includes a detailed set of organisational and technical requirements concerning the provision of Air Traffic Services. This is transposed primarily from the relevant ICAO Annex 11 and PANS-ATM, latest amendments;
- Part-MET reflects Amendment 77-A and 77-B to ICAO Annex 3, particularly with regard to provisions relating to SIGMET(1), the World Area Forecast System, as well as the implementation of the Global Reporting Format for assessing and reporting runway surface conditions;
- Part-AIS includes a detailed set of organisational and technical requirements concerning Aeronautical Information Services, transposed primarily from ICAO Annex 15 (16th Edition). It draws on the experience of the Union in AIS provision and ensures proportionality according to the size, type and complexity of the AIS provider. Furthermore, Part-AIS now incorporates the detailed provisions on the quality of aeronautical data and aeronautical information, previously stipulated in Regulation (EU) No 73/2010, as a result of the extension in the Agency’s competencies stemming from the EASA Basic Regulation;
- Part-FPD introduces a new certification and oversight scheme for providers of flight procedure design and organisations designing flight procedures. The new provisions enable the EU-wide mutual recognition of these certificates by avoiding duplication. They also promote effectiveness in certification and oversight processes as well as an efficient use of related resources at EU and national level. Member States are enabled to perform design on airspace structure based on common technical rules to ensure that airspace structures are properly designed, surveyed and validated before they can be deployed and used by aircraft.
Amendments to the Commission Regulation (EU) No 139/2014 (Aerodromes) and to the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 923/2012 (Standardised European Rules of the Air) were also introduced, to ensure consistency within the EU legislation.
As a next step, EASA will publish the associated Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC) and Guidance Material (GM), in order to facilitate the implementation and application of this significant set of rules.
(1) ‘SIGMET’ means information, issued by a meteorological watch office, concerning the occurrence or expected occurrence of specified en-route weather and other phenomena in the atmosphere which may affect the safety of aircraft operations and of the development of those phenomena in time and space;’
