Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:

‘aerodrome control service’ means an air traffic control (ATC) service for aerodrome traffic;

‘aeronautical information service’ or ‘AIS’ means a service, established within a defined area of coverage, responsible for the provision of aeronautical information and data necessary for the safety, regularity, and efficiency of air navigation;

‘Agency’ means the European Union Aviation Safety Agency established by Regulation (EU) 2018/1139;

‘air navigation service provider’ means a public or private entity providing one or more air navigation services for general air traffic;

‘air navigation services’ or ‘ANS’ means air traffic services; communication, navigation and surveillance services (CNS) including services which augment signals emitted by satellites of core constellations of GNSS for the purpose of air navigation; meteorological services for air navigation (MET); aeronautical information services (AIS); and air traffic data services (ADS);

‘air traffic control service’ or ‘ATC service’ means a service provided for the purpose of:

preventing collisions:

between aircraft;

in the manoeuvring area between aircraft and obstructions;

expediting and maintaining an orderly flow of air traffic;

‘air traffic data services’ or ‘ADS’ means services consisting in the collection, aggregation and integration of operational data from providers of surveillance services, from providers of MET and AIS and network functions and from other relevant entities generating operational data, and the provision of processed data for air traffic control and air traffic management purposes;

‘air traffic flow management’ or ‘ATFM’ means a function established with the objective of contributing to a safe, orderly and expeditious flow of air traffic covering the full trajectory by ensuring that ATC capacity is utilised to the maximum extent possible, and that the traffic volume is compatible with the capacities declared by the appropriate air traffic service providers;

‘air traffic management’ or ‘ATM’ means the aggregation of the airborne and ground-based functions and services, namely air traffic services, airspace management and air traffic flow management, including flight procedures design, required to ensure the safe and efficient movement of aircraft during all phases of operations;

‘air traffic services’ means the various flight information services, alerting services and air traffic advisory services, as well as ATC services, namely area, approach and aerodrome control services;

‘airspace block’ means an airspace of defined dimensions, in space and time, consisting of one or more airspace structures, within which air navigation services are provided;

‘airspace management’ means a planning and monitoring function with the primary objective of optimising the utilisation of available airspace by dynamic time-sharing and, at times, the segregation of airspace among various categories of airspace users on the basis of short-term needs;

‘airspace structure’ means a specific volume of airspace defined with a view to ensuring the safe and optimal operation of aircraft;

‘airspace users’ means operators of aircraft operated in accordance with general air traffic rules;

‘alerting service’ means a service provided to notify relevant organisations regarding aircraft in need of search and rescue aid, and to assist such organisations as required;

‘approach control service’ means an ATC service for arriving or departing controlled flights;

‘area control service’ means an ATC service for controlled flights in control areas;

‘baseline value’ means a value defined for the purpose of setting performance targets and estimated by using actual costs or actual unit costs during the year preceding the start of the relevant reference period;

‘benchmark group’ means a group of air traffic service providers with a similar operational and economic environment;

‘breakdown value’ means the value obtained, for a given air traffic service provider, by breaking down a Union-wide performance target to the level of one or more air traffic service providers and serving as a reference for assessing consistency of the performance target set in the draft performance plan with the Union-wide performance target;

‘certificate’ means a ‘certificate’ as defined in Article 3, point (12), of Regulation (EU) 2018/1139;

‘common information service’ or ‘CIS’ means a service consisting in the dissemination of static and dynamic data to enable the provision of U-space services for the management of traffic of unmanned aircraft;

‘U-space airspace’ means a UAS geographical zone designated by Member States, where UAS operations are only allowed to take place with the support of U-space services;

‘U-space service’ means a service relying on digital services and automation of functions designed to support safe, efficient and secure access to U-space airspace for a large number of UAS;

‘U-space service provider’ means any legal person providing U-space services;

‘communication services’ means aeronautical fixed and mobile services to enable ground-to-ground, air-to-ground and air-to-air communications for ATC purposes;

‘constituents’ means tangible objects, such as hardware, and intangible objects, such as software, upon which the interoperability of the European air traffic management network (EATMN) depends;

‘control area’ means a controlled airspace extending upwards from a specified limit above the earth;

‘cooperative decision-making’ means a process in which decisions are made based on interaction and consultation with the relevant Member State authorities, operational stakeholders and other actors, as appropriate, and aiming to achieve consensus;

‘cross-border services’ means air navigation services provided in one Member State by a service provider having its principal place of business in another Member State;

‘declaration’ means, for the purposes of air traffic management and air navigation services, a ‘declaration’ as defined in Article 3, point (10), of Regulation (EU) 2018/1139;

‘design of airspace structures’ means a process that ensures the development and implementation of advanced navigational capabilities and techniques, improved route networks and associated sectorisation, optimised airspace structures and capacity-enhancing ATM procedures;

‘en route charging zone’ means a volume of airspace that extends from the ground up to, and including, upper airspace, where en route air navigation services are provided and for which a single cost base is established;

‘Eurocontrol’ is the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation set up by the International Convention of 13 December 1960 relating to Cooperation for the Safety of Air Navigation;

‘European air traffic management network’ (EATMN) means the collection of systems, referred to in point 3.1 of Annex VIII to Regulation (EU) 2018/1139, enabling air navigation services in the Union to be provided, including the interfaces at boundaries with third countries;

‘European ATM Master Plan’ means the plan endorsed by Council Decision 2009/320/EC ( 18 ) , as subsequently amended;

‘flexible use of airspace’ means an airspace management concept, as described by ICAO, based on the fundamental principle that airspace should not be designated as either pure civil or military airspace, but should rather be considered as a continuum in which all user requirements have to be accommodated to the extent possible;

‘flight information service’ means a service provided for the purpose of giving advice and information useful for the safe and efficient conduct of flights;

‘flight procedures design’ means all tasks relevant to the design of an instrument flight procedure;

‘general air traffic’ means all movements of civil aircraft, as well as all movements of state aircraft (including military, customs and police aircraft) when those movements are carried out in conformity with the procedures of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) as established by the Chicago Convention;

‘Instrument flight rules’ or ‘IFR’ are rules which allow an aircraft which is equipped with suitable navigation equipment appropriate to the route to be flown in accordance with the applicable requirements on air operations;

‘IFR air transport movements per year’ means the sum of take-offs and landings performed under IFR, calculated as the yearly average over the three calendar years preceding the year in which the draft performance plan is to be submitted;

‘interoperability’ means a set of functional, technical and operational properties required of the systems and constituents of the EATMN and of the procedures for its operation, in order to enable its safe, seamless and efficient operation;

‘meteorological services for air navigation’ or ‘MET’ means the facilities and services that provide meteorological forecasts, warnings, briefings and observations for air navigation purposes, as well as any other meteorological information and data provided by States for aeronautical use;

‘national competent authority’ means a national competent authority as defined in Article 3, point (34), of Regulation (EU) 2018/1139;

‘national supervisory authority’ means the national body or bodies entrusted by a Member State with the tasks under this Regulation;

‘navigation services’ means the facilities and services that provide aircraft with positioning and timing information;

‘network crisis’ means a state of inability to provide air traffic management or air navigation services at the required level, resulting in a major loss of network capacity; a major imbalance between network capacity and demand; or a major failure in the information flow in, or in the integrity of, one or several parts of the network following an unusual or unforeseen situation;

‘Network Manager’ means the entity entrusted with the tasks necessary to contribute to the execution, in accordance with Article 38, of the network functions referred to in Article 37;

‘Network Operations Plan’ or ‘NOP’ means a plan established through cooperative decision-making process to implement at operational level the objectives of the network functions, and to contribute to performance objectives;

‘Network Strategy Plan’ or ‘NSP’ means a plan established through cooperative decision-making process guiding the network’s long-term development;

‘operational air traffic’ means all flights, which do not comply with the provisions stated for general air traffic and for which rules and procedures have been specified by appropriate national authorities;

‘operational data’ means information concerning all phases of flight that is required for operational purposes by air navigation service providers, airspace users, airport operators and other actors involved;

‘operational stakeholders’ means the civil and military airspace users, civil and military air navigation service providers and airport operators;

‘performance plan’ means a plan aimed at improving the performance of air navigation services and network functions;

‘putting into service’ means the first operational use after the initial installation or upgrade of a system;

‘route network’ means a network of specified routes for channelling the flow of general air traffic as necessary for the provision of ATC services;

‘SESAR definition phase’ means the phase comprising the establishment and updating of the long-term vision of the SESAR project, of the related concept of operations enabling improvements at every stage of flight, of the required essential operational changes within the EATMN and of the required development and deployment priorities;

‘SESAR deployment phase’ means the successive phases of industrialisation and implementation, during which the following activities are conducted: standardisation, production and certification of ground and airborne equipment and processes necessary to implement SESAR solutions (industrialisation); and procurement, installation and putting into service of equipment and systems based on SESAR solutions, including associated operational procedures (implementation);

‘SESAR development phase’ means the phase during which research, development and validation activities aiming to deliver mature SESAR solutions are conducted;

‘SESAR project’ means the project to modernise air traffic management in Europe, aimed at providing the Union with a high performance, standardised and interoperable air traffic management infrastructure, and consisting in an innovation cycle that includes the SESAR definition phase, the SESAR development phase and the SESAR deployment phase;

‘SESAR solution’ means a deployable output of the SESAR development phase introducing new or improved standardised and interoperable operational procedures or technologies;

‘surveillance services’ means the facilities and services used to determine the respective positions of aircraft to allow safe separation;

‘system’ means the aggregation of airborne and ground-based constituents, as well as space-based equipment, that provides support for air navigation services for all phases of flight;

‘terminal charging zone’ means an airport or a group of airports located within the territories of a Member State or Member States, where terminal air navigation services are provided and for which a single cost base is established;

‘upgrade’ means any modification that changes the operational characteristics of a system;

‘utilisation of airspace structures’ means the way that airspace structures are operationally used, which is to be understood as different from airspace management as defined in point 12.

REGULATION (EU) 2024/2803 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 23 October 2024 on the implementation of the Single European Sky (recast) ANNEX I ANNEX II