With the 12th ICAO Air Navigation Conference (ANC/12) on the horizon, coordination of all European technical papers is at full speed. To date, 23 common papers have matured to the level of review amongst the European States after a true collaboration between the European Commission, Eurocontrol, the European Aviation Safety Agency, SESAR JU, EUROCAE, European States and industry. One European key objective in the preparation of this event is to also closely coordinate with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other global players to ensure consistency of messages.

From the SESAR JU’s perspective, the main topics for the conference are the presentation of the European ATM Master Plan and how it fits with ICAO’s concept of Aviation System Block Upgrades. On the more content related side, the need to develop 4D trajectory operations in connection with PBN/A-RNP and SWIM with provision of suitable data communications capabilities and standards are key priorities.

The proposed working papers were open to comments from Member States until 22 June with a review session scheduled for 29 June. The papers will be presented to the EU Aviation Working Group in mid-July who will endorse the first set of European working papers. There will however be an opportunity to revise the remaining papers until September. Then, the European contribution will be sent to ICAO for filtering and translation in preparing the final set of papers for ANC/12. After September further coordination will take place to discuss papers from other states and regions.