The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has awarded its first Flight Procedure Design certification to Slovakia’s Aeronautical Services and Procedures ASAP s.r.o.
The core business of ASAP s.r.o. is instrument flight procedure design world wide.
Scope of the "Flight procedure design" allows an authority or Country in the planning of routes used by pilots and air traffic control, from take-off to touchdown.
Flight procedure design ensure that aircrafts maintain a minimum clearance over terrain and obstacles and have to meet further criteria such as aircraft performance limitations, airspace capacity and air traffic control separation requirements , as well as environmental concerns.
The outcomes of these Flight procedure design are charts used by pilots as well as coded procedures loaded into aircrafts' flight management systems (FMS).
Flight Procedure Design became a regulated activity requiring certification in 2022. An EASA certificate allows the holder to provide flight procedure design services in all Member States , without any additional National requirements.
Airspace and procedure design follows the principles laid down in ICAO Doc 8168 (PANS-OPS) and Doc 4444 (PANS-ATM).
The certificate was presented to ASAP Managing Director Ian Whitworth by Jussi Myllarniemi, Head of the Air Traffic Department at EASA and Manuel Rivas Vila, ATM Oversight Section Manager) during the World ATM Congress in Madrid. With this, ASAP becomes the first pan-European Flight Procedure Design provider.
Among effects , a poorly designed airspace can increase the risk of loss of separation , level bust , and Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT).
Source : EASA .
