Standardised European Rules of the Air (SERA) mandate - Part A

SES mandate on Standardised European Rules of the Air (SERA) implementing rule for airspace – Part A - COMPLETED

EUROCONTROL has been mandated by the European Commission to develop, in close co-operation with EASA, common and standardised European rules of the air, with a view to supporting implementation of Functional Airspace Blocks (FAB’s), helping free movement of aircraft across Europe’s borders, increasing safety and minimising the inconvenience and risk of misunderstandings caused by varying national sets of rules of the air.

In terms of scope, the mandate is based on the SES Regulatory Framework and some provisions of EASA Basic Regulation. It encompasses ICAO Annex 2 “Rules of the Air” and other ICAO Standards and relevant practices (SARPs) and Procedures for Air Navigation Services (PANS). The implementing rule does not create new obligations but rather transpose already existing obligations, and standardises the way the existing ICAO obligations are implemented within the single European sky.

Upon analysis SERA is to be developed in successive phases, the first covering the transposition of ICAO Annex 2, “Rules of the Air”, named SERA Part A.

The following phases consist of SERA Parts B and C, transposing the ICAO Annex 11 provisions and possible other ICAO provisions as appropriate, and when considered necessary, the relevant set of common EU differences to ICAO provisions.

At its 40th session, the Single Sky Committee agreed to that a formal opinion on this Part A will be sought together with the vote on Part B.

 

Implementing

Following the delivery of the final report to the European Commission, the Single Sky Committee organized a written consultation on SERA at its 38th session. To support the implementation of SERA, the dedicated SSC Working Group on SERA also identified which provisions should be better captured by Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC) or Guidance Material (GM).

Presently, EUROCONTROL does not provide any generic support to the implementation of SERA.