FF-ICE flight planning mandate

15 November 2022: On 9 and 10 November, ERA attended the NM Airline Operations Group, where several operational topics were discussed. One key area that will impact members is the EU Flight & Flow in Collaborative Environment (ICAO FF-ICE) mandate, effective from the end of 2025. 

The ICAO FF-ICE concept defines information requirements for flight planning, flow management and trajectory management and aims to be a cornerstone of the performance-based air navigation system. The concept is not new, and EUROCONTROL has been working on the European derivative under the Network Manager Flight Plan and Flight Data Evolution (FPFDE) initiative.

Members will be aware of the change to flight planning requirements with the ICAO 2012 mandate, which was essentially an incremental update to the standard flight plan filing processes incorporating NAV, COM and SUR capabilities. The FF-ICE Release 1 mandate as prescribed by the CP1 regulation is essentially a complete overhaul of the flight planning requirements when compared to those introduced in 2012.

ERA, alongside the overwhelming majority of airspace users and airspace user associations, had always been under the impression that the deployment of FF-ICE in Europe was non-mandatory. However, in recent weeks, it has been made clear that the Common Project 1 regulation mandates the use of the FF-ICE filing service which covers the eFPL, 4D trajectory information, flight specific performance data and the use of the global unique flight identifier (GUFI).

It requires all airspace users operating in the European Air Traffic Management Network (EATMN), including overflights, to be compliant and use the filing service by the end of 2025. Failure to do so may see infringement procedures applied by the Commission.

Similar to the previously-announced support from the SESAR Deployment Manager in respect to CEF funding for CNS, the SDM has indicated that this topic is also eligible for funding (50 per cent of eligible costs), however time is incredibly tight for these submissions to be filed. It is likely that there will be another CEF call in 2023 to cover the same topic, albeit not guaranteed, but ERA will lobby strongly for this to be realised next year given the importance of the subject matter and the time constraints in this particular call.

ERA will organise a dedicated webinar in the forthcoming weeks between all relevant parties, and information will cascade to members in due course. The next ERA Operations Group will also cover all matters related to the Common Project 1 regulation at the next face-to-face meeting in early Q2 2023.

In the downloads section at the top right you can find both the presentation given the AOG by the SDM and an associated briefing note (both locked for members only).

In case of questions, please don’t hesitate to contact nick.rhodes@eraa.org