Part B — Planning and Operational Principles

1. The operational stakeholders shall plan and execute the tasks supporting the ATFM function for:

(a) all phases of all flights intended to operate or operating as general air traffic and in accordance with the Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) in whole or in part;

(b) all phases of flights referred to in point (a) and air traffic management.

2. Appropriate cooperation and coordination shall be ensured with the relevant ICAO working arrangements covering ATFM aspects at the interfaces.

3. Military aircraft operating as general air traffic shall be subject to ATFM measures when operating or intending to operate within airspace or airports to which ATFM measures apply.

4. The ATFM function shall be governed by the following principles:

(a) ATFM measures shall:

(i) support safe operations and prevent excessive air traffic demand compared with declared ATC capacity of sectors and aerodromes including runways;

(ii) use UK ATMS capacity to the maximum extent possible in order to optimise the efficiency of the UK ATMS and minimise adverse effects on operators;

(iii) optimise the UK ATMS capacity made available through the development and application of capacity enhancing measures by ATS units;

(iv) support the management of critical events.

(b) the allocation of ATFM departure slots shall give priority to flights according to the order of their planned entry into the location at which the ATFM measure will apply, unless specific circumstances such as those stemming from security and defence needs, require application of a different priority rule which is agreed and is of benefit to the UK ATMS;

(c) trajectory times in the planning and execution phases shall be consistent with any applied ATFM measures and shall be communicated by the CAA to aircraft operators, ATS units and local ATFM units;

(d) flights departing from the geographical area where ATFM measures are applied and adjacent Flight Information Regions as described in the appropriate ICAO documentation shall be subject to ATFM slot allocation. Flights departing from other areas shall be exempted from ATFM slot allocation but shall however be subject to route, traffic orientations schemes and trajectory time constraints.

5. The Secretary of State must endeavour to ensure that:

(a) the ATFM function is available to parties concerned 24 hours a day and that the local ATFM unit, on an exclusive basis, covers a designated area in respect of the airspace under their responsibility within the geographical area where ATFM measures are applied;

(b) in order to ensure efficient airspace planning allocation and efficient use, as well as direct links between airspace management and ATFM, consistent procedures are established for the cooperation between the parties involved in the ATFM function, ATS units and entities involved in airspace management;

(c) common procedures for requesting exemption from an ATFM departure slot are in accordance with the ICAO provisions referred to in the Appendix. Those procedures shall be coordinated through the unit providing central ATFM and published in national aeronautical information publications.

6. The Secretary of State must endeavour to:

(a) optimise the overall performance of the UK ATMS through planning, coordination and implementation of agreed ATFM measures, including for transition plans for the entry into service of major airspace or ATM systems improvements and for adverse weather, through cooperative decision-making;

(b) consult operators on the definition of ATFM measures;

(d) ensure the development, availability and effective implementation of ATFM measures (for all ATFM phases), together with local ATFM units; when such ATFM measures have a wider network impact, the Secretary of State must endeavour to establish, through cooperative decision-making, the nature of the ATFM measures to be implemented;

(e) in coordination with local ATFM units, identify alternative routings to avoid or alleviate congested areas, taking into account the overall performance of the UK ATMS;

(f) offer a re-routing to those flights that would optimise the effect of point (e);

(g) in coordination with the ATS units and the local ATFM units determine, coordinate and ensure the implementation of appropriate measures aimed at providing the necessary capacity to accommodate traffic demand throughout relevant portions of their area of responsibility;

(h) provide information on ATFM operations in a timely manner to aircraft operators, local ATFM units and ATS units, including:

(i) planned ATFM measures;

(ii) impact of ATFM measures on take-off time and flight profile of individual flights;

(i) monitor the occurrences of missing flight plans and multiple flight plans that are filed;

(j) suspend a flight plan when, considering the time tolerance, the ATFM departure slot cannot be met and a new estimated off-block time is not known;

(k) monitor the number of exemptions from ATFM measures granted;

(l) develop, maintain and publish contingency plans defining the actions to be taken by relevant operational stakeholders in the event of a major failure of a component of the ATFM function at network level which would result in significant reductions in capacity or major disruptions of traffic flows, or both;

(m) share with all operational stakeholders all appropriate post operational analyses and evaluations;

(n) enable the appropriate preparation and the predictability of the UK ATMS, ensure working arrangements to collect timely and updated traffic demand information for all ATFM phases from the airspace users and share this with the local ATFM units.

7. The ATS units shall:

(a) coordinate ATFM measures, through the local ATFM unit(s), in order to ensure that the measures chosen aim at the optimisation of the overall performance of the UK ATMS;

(b) ensure that ATFM measures applied to airports are coordinated with the airport operator concerned, in order to ensure efficiency in airport planning and usage for the benefit of all concerned operational stakeholders;

(c) notify to the CAA, through the local ATFM unit, all events, including transition plans for the entry into service of major airspace or ATM systems improvements and adverse weather, that may impact air traffic control capacity or air traffic demand and proposed mitigation;

(d) provide the CAA and the local ATFM units with the following data and subsequent updates, as technically feasible, in a timely manner and ensuring its quality:

(i) airspace and route structures;

(ii) airspace and route availability including availability through application of flexible use of airspace in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 2150/2005;

(iii) ATS unit sector configurations and activations;

(iv) aerodrome taxi times and runway configurations;

(v) air traffic control sector, and aerodrome capacities including runways;

(vi) updated flight positions;

(vii) deviations from flight plans;

(viii) actual flight take-off times;

(ix) information on the operational availability of the Communication Navigation Surveillance (CNS)/ATM infrastructure.

8. The data referred to in paragraph 7(d) shall be made available to and from the CAA and the operational stakeholders.

9. To ensure network predictability, the ATS unit at the departure airport shall ensure that flights not adhering to their estimated off blocks time, taking into account the established time tolerance or the flight plan of which has been rejected or suspended are not given a take-off clearance.

10. The local ATFM units shall:

(a) endeavour to act as point of contact and interface between the unit providing central ATFM, on the one hand, and designated areas and their associated aerodromes and ATS units (military and civil) within their area of responsibility, on the other hand, on the basis of roles and responsibilities agreed through appropriate working arrangements;

(b) establish appropriate local procedures in line with the procedures established by the unit providing central ATFM, including temporary procedures;

(d) ensure, in coordination with relevant ATS units and, and in endeavouring to coordinate with the unit providing central ATFM, appropriate ATFM measures implementation for an optimum flow of traffic and balanced demand and capacity by coordinating efficient use of available capacity;

(e) notify to the CAA and the unit providing central ATFM all events, including transition plans for the entry into service of major airspace or ATM systems improvements and for adverse weather, that may impact air traffic control capacity or air traffic demand and proposed mitigations;

(f) ensure, in coordination with relevant ATS units and, in endeavouring to coordinate with the unit providing central ATFM, post-operation analyses to identify means to improve the network performance;

(g) have in place continuously updated pre-defined contingency plans detailing how the area under their responsibility will be handled in contingency operations. Those local plans shall be shared and coordinated with the unit providing central ATFM.

11. Where an ATS reporting office is established, it shall facilitate the exchange of information between pilots or operators and the local ATFM unit or the unit providing central ATFM.

12. The aircraft operators shall:

(a) provide a single flight plan for each intended flight. The filed flight plan shall correctly reflect the intended flight profile;

(b) ensure that all relevant ATFM measures and changes thereto are incorporated into the planned flight operation;

(c) participate in the working arrangements established by the unit providing central ATFM facilitating timely and updated information on air traffic demand for all ATFM phases.

13. Airport operators shall:

(a) have arrangements with the local ATS unit to:

(i) exchange and coordinate with the relevant local ATFM units and the unit providing central ATFM all information on capacity and air traffic demand and their evolution for all ATFM phases, in particular ahead of flight schedule publication;

(ii) notify the relevant local ATFM units and the unit providing central ATFM, all events that may impact air traffic control capacity or air traffic demand.

(b) establish processes to assess the demand and the impact on the demand of special events that are applicable to all ATFM phases.

14 With respect to consistency between flight plans and airport slots:

(a) where requested by an airport slot coordinator or an airport operator of a coordinated airport, the unit providing central ATFM or the local ATFM unit shall provide them with the flight plan of a flight operating at that airport, before that flight takes place. The airport slot coordinators or the airport operators of coordinated airports shall provide the infrastructure required for the reception of the flight plans provided by the unit providing central ATFM or the local ATFM unit for;

(b) before flight, aircraft operators shall provide aerodromes of departure and arrival with the necessary information to enable a correlation to be made between the flight designator contained in the flight plan and that notified for the corresponding airport slot; this correlation shall be provided by the unit providing central ATFM, the local ATFM unit, the local ATS unit or the airport operator as appropriate;

(c) any aircraft operator, airport operator and ATS unit shall report to the airport slot coordinator on repeated operation of air services at times that are significantly different from the allocated airport slots or with the use of slots in a significantly different way from that indicated at the time of allocation, where this causes prejudice to airport or air traffic operations;

(d) the Secretary of State must endeavour to ensure that the unit providing central ATFM reports to the airport slot coordinators on repeated operation of air services at significantly different times from the allocated airport slots or with the use of slots in a significantly different way from that indicated at the time of allocation, where this causes prejudice to ATFM.

15. When implementing arrival and departure planning information (DPI), airport local operational stakeholders shall coordinate with the unit providing central ATFM in the establishment and operation of that functionality.

16. With respect to critical events:

(a) the Secretary of State must endeavour to ensure that the unit providing central ATFM develops, maintains and publishes ATFM procedures for handling critical events. ATFM procedures shall set out the actions to be taken by relevant operational stakeholders in the event of a major disruption of a component of the network which would result in significant reduction in capacity or major disruptions of traffic flows, or both;

(b) in the preparation for critical events, ATS units and airport operators, shall coordinate the relevance and content of the contingency procedures with the unit providing central ATFM and local ATFM units, aircraft operators affected by critical events, and as appropriate the airport slot coordinators, including any adjustment to priority rules. The contingency procedures shall include:

(i) organisational and coordination arrangements;

(ii) ATFM measures to manage access to affected areas to prevent excessive air traffic demand compared with declared capacity of the whole or part of the airspace or airports concerned;

(iii) circumstances, conditions and procedures for the application of priority rules for flights, which respect essential security or defence policy interests;

(iv) recovery arrangements.