Central Flow Management Unit (CFMU) Creation

The CFMU was established in 1995 as a EUROCONTROL Directorate in accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Centralised Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) Organisation to provide the ATFM Service, on behalf of the participant States, in a specified part of the EUR Region. The CFMU comprised the Central Executive Unit and the Flight Data Operations Division with the Integrated Initial Flight Plan processing System. For Airspace Management (ASM) purposes, the CFMU has been also entrusted with the Centralised Airspace Data Function (CADF).

The Centralised Airspace Data Function is an ASM function entrusted to the CFMU by the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) States for consolidating Conditional Route information contained in the various national Airspace Use Plans (AUPs). The CADF compiles these plans into a single coherent list - the European Airspace Use Plan and distributes it on behalf of the States, to the Aircraft Operators.

CFMU Evolution

In its Single European Sky II legislation, the European Commission created the Network Manager function so as to optimise the European aviation network’s performance. The EC nominated EUROCONTROL as Network Manager in July 2011 until the end of the second Reference Period of the Performance Scheme - that is, until 31 December 2019. EUROCONTROL will seek re-designation for the period beyond 2019.

According to the SES II legislation the Network Manager performs 4 main functions:

• Route network design
• Central aeronautical frequency allocation for the European region;
• Coordination of improvement of SSR Code Allocation, and
• Air traffic flow management (ATFM).

In line with the changes to the regulatory framework the central flight plan processing, ATFM and airspace data processing functions of former CFMU are provided by the Network Manager Operations Centre (NMOC).