The European Commission has adopted a Regulation for the implementation of the Pilot Common Project, the first set of Air Traffic Management (ATM) functionalities that have been identified for wide scale coordinated deployment. Published on 27 June in the Official Journal of the European Union, the Regulation aims to ensure that the ATM functionalities developed within the SESAR Research and Innovation (R&I) are deployed in a timely, coordinated and synchronised way. Deployment in such a way is expected to bring important performance and cost benefits for Europe’s aviation and air transport sectors.

The Pilot Common Projects is derived from the SESAR R&I Solutions and comprises the following ATM functionalities:

• Extended Arrival Management and Performance Based Navigation in the High Density Terminal Manoeuvring Areas;
• Airport Integration and Throughput;
• Flexible Airspace Management and Free Route;
• Network Collaborative Management;
• Initial System Wide Information Management;
• Initial Trajectory Information Sharing.

In addition to the PCP, the European Commission intends to establish a Deployment Manager, whose job will be to implement the PCP and ultimately manage SESAR deployment activities. A review process by the European Commission will check progress towards deployment and the achievement of performance targets, as a result of the PCP.