ENAIRE, the first organisation to be certified to design flight procedures

ENAIRE, Spain's air navigation service provider, has been certified as a Flight Procedure Design (FPD) provider.

"This FPD service, which ENAIRE was already providing, is now certified to be in compliance with the new European law, EU Regulation 2017/373, as laid out in ENAIRE's Strategic Plan, Flight Plan 2025", says Marta Hernandez, head of ENAIRE's Airspace and Obstacle Management Division.

The process of adapting to this new regulation began in 2020, and the main activities aimed at certifying this FPD service were carried out over the course of 2021. The formal process began in June 2021 when ENAIRE submitted the documentation to the National Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which identified the means of complying with the common requirements of the aforementioned Regulation and provided compliance with the technical requirements of the new service.

All the actions that were being carried out by ENAIRE when it applied for certification have been implemented over the past few months, resulting in AESA's issuing the new FPD certificate to ENAIRE, which thus becomes the first organisation in Spain to be certified to provide this service in the country.

According to ENAIRE's Head of Quality Management and Airspace Certification, Vanesa Martín, "FPD is a service to design, document, validate, maintain and periodically review the flight procedures needed for safe, regular and efficient air navigation;  the service includes both the design and the validation on land and in flight".

The contents of each part considered in the definition of the FPD service for which AESA certified ENAIRE are detailed below:

- Design of flight procedures and/or airspace structures. Includes data acquisition, validation and verification, user consultation, formal design and design review.

- Continuous upkeep and periodic review of the procedures. Consists of ensuring that significant changes involving obstacles, airports, aeronautical data and navaids are constantly evaluated.

- Assessment of all changes to the criteria, user requirements and drawing standards.

- Documentation of every internal procedure involving the management of the FPD service.

Through the FDP certificate, ENAIRE is now certified by AESA to provide six air navigation services. The others are ATS (air traffic), AIS (aeronautical information), CNS (communications, navigation and surveillance), ATFM (air traffic flow management) and ASM (airspace management) Level 3 provider.