Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 2017/373 of 1 March 2017 laying down common requirements for providers of air traffic management/air navigation services and other air traffic management network functions and their oversight, repealing Regulation (EC) No 482/2008, Implementing Regulations (EU) No 1034/2011, (EU) No 1035/2011 and (EU) 2016/1377 and amending Regulation (EU) No 677/2011 - text published in the Official Journal of the European Union

Objective

To lay down common requirements for:

• the provision of ATM and air navigation services and other ATM network functions for general air traffic;
• the competent authorities, which exercise certification, oversight and enforcement tasks.

Summary

Structure

The main body of the Regulation is followed by 13 Annexes:

• Annex I - Definitions of terms used in Annexes II to XIII (Part-Definitions)
• Annex II - Requirements for competent authorities — oversight of services and other ATM network functions (Part-ATM/ANS.AR)
• Annex III - Common requirements for service providers (Part-ATM/ANS.OR)
• Annex IV - Specific requirements for providers of air traffic services (Part-ATS)
• Annex V - Specific requirements for providers of meteorological services (Part-MET)
• Annex VI - Specific requirements for providers of aeronautical information services (Part-AIS)
• Annex VII - Specific requirements for providers of data services (Part-DAT)
• Annex VIII - Specific requirements for providers of communication, navigation, or surveillance services (Part-CNS)
• Annex IX - Specific requirements for providers of air traffic flow management (Part-ATFM)
• Annex X - Specific requirements for providers of airspace management (Part-ASM)
• Annex XI - Specific requirements for providers of procedure design (Part-ASD)
• Annex XII - Specific requirements for the Network Manager (Part-NM)
• Annex XIII - Requirements for service providers concerning personnel training and competence assessment (Part-PERS)

Certificates

Service providers shall be granted a certificate and be entitled to exercise the privileges granted within the scope of that certificate, where, in addition to the requirements referred to in Regulation 2018/1139, they comply and continue to comply with the requirements of the relevant Annex to this Regulation.

Certificates that have been issued in accordance with Regulation 1035/2011 shall be deemed to have been issued in accordance with this Regulation. Member States shall replace these certificates with certificates complying with the format laid down in Appendix 1 to Annex II by 1 January 2021 at the latest.

Competent Authority

The competent authority responsible for the issuing of certificates to service providers, for the acknowledgment of receipts of declarations made by providers of flight information services, and for the oversight and enforcement in respect of service providers shall be the national supervisory authority, unless EASA is the competent authority pursuant to Regulation No 2018/1139.

For the purposes of this Regulation, data services providers and the Network Manager shall be considered to be pan-European service providers. Therefore, in these cases, EASA is the competent authority.

The competent authorities referred to in paragraph 1 shall comply with the requirements laid down in Annex II.

Where a Member State has nominated or established more than one competent authority to exercise the certification, oversight and enforcement tasks under this Regulation, it shall ensure that the areas of competence of each of those authorities are clearly defined. Those authorities shall establish coordination between them, based on written arrangements.

The competent authorities shall be independent of any service provider. Member States shall ensure that the competent authorities exercise their powers impartially and transparently. Member States shall ensure that their competent authorities do not allow their personnel to act under this Regulation where there are indications that this could result, in a conflict of interest.

EASA shall maintain a database of contact details of the competent authorities. For this purpose, Member States shall notify EASA of the names and addresses of their competent authorities, and of any subsequent changes.

The competent authorities shall be empowered to:

• require the service providers subject to their oversight to provide all necessary information;
• require any representative, manager or other member of the personnel of the service providers to provide oral explanations on any fact, document, object, procedure or other subject matter relevant to the oversight;
• enter any premises and land, including operating sites, and means of transport of the service providers;
• examine, copy or make extracts from any document, record or data held by or accessible to the service providers, irrespective of the medium on which the information in question is stored;
• carry out audits, assessments, investigations and inspections of the service providers.

The powers provided of the competent authorities shall be exercised in compliance with the national law of the Member State and with the principle of proportionality. Where, prior authorisation from the judicial authority of the Member State is needed to enter premises, land and means of transport, the powers shall be exercised only after having obtained such prior authorisation. The competent authority shall ensure that the members of its staff are duly authorised.

The competent authorities shall take any appropriate measures to ensure that the service providers comply with this Regulation.

Amendments

This Regulation was amended in 2020 by Regulation 2020/469. 

Amendment scope (the list is not exhaustive):

• Rephrasing the Subject matter.
• Adding definitions for "design of airspace structures", ACAS, and "entity originating aeronautical data and aeronautical information".
• Adding provisions for:
  • Determination of the need for the provision of air traffic services
  • Coordination between military units and air traffic service providers
  • Coordination of air operations potentially hazardous to civil aviation
  • Very-high frequency (VHF) emergency frequency
• Amending annexes I, II, III, IV, V, VI and XI, the most notable changes being:
• Annex I is amended by adding 160 new definitions, rephrasing 6 definitions and removing 2 definitions.
• The Service Provider Certificate form in Annex II is amended by detailing the AIS scope of service (originally "Provision of the whole AIS service" and now this is split into two groups and eight subgroups) and adding a separate table for Flight procedure design (FPD) service.
• Annex III "Common Requirements for Service Providers" is amended by:
  • Adding requirements for "Provision of aeronautical data", "Aeronautical data quality management" and "Common reference systems for air navigation".
  • Adding Appendix 1 called "Aeronautical Data Catalogue" which contains data about aerodromes, airspace, routes, instrument flight procedures, radioaids, obstacles and geographical positions. The data is in tabular form and Appendix 1 contains a table template.
• Annex IV "Specific Requirements for Providers of Air Traffic Services" is amended by adding provisions and requirements for:
  • Arrangement of coordination between ATS providers and aerodrome operators, military units, meteorological service providers and aeronautical information services.
  • Contingency arrangements, arrangements in case of equipment failure, operation of ATC service and transfer of control and communication arrangements.
  • Synchronization and obtaining the correct time.
  • Communication, including for controller-pilot communication (voice and datalink), the use of the emergency frequency 121.500 MHz, inter-unit communication and communication with vehicles at aerodromes. Provision for recording surveillance and communication data are also included.
  • Meteorological information distribution.
  • Distribution of information on aerodrome conditions and the operational status of associated facilities.
  • Provision of ATS, such as objectives of ATS, establishment of ATS units, identification of ATS units, establishment of altimeter-related procedures, provision of ATS surveillance services
  • Provision of ATC service, such as applicability in terms of airspace class and flight rules, operation of the service, selection of applicable separation minima, responsibility for control and transfer of that responsibility, ATC clearances, aerodrome control, etc.
  • Provision of FIS, such as scope and applicability, ATIS and VOLMET broadcasts, etc.
  • Provision of alerting services, such as applicability, notification of rescue coordination centres, information to the operator and to other aircraft operating in the vicinity of the emergency.
• Annex V "Specific Requirements for Providers of Meteorological Services" is amended by:
  • Rephrasing most of the provisions.
  • A step of 1000 ft for cloud base reporting above 10 000 ft is established.
  • Adding requirements for wind data, temperature and geopotential altitude data forecasts for FL 80, FL 210 and FL 480.
  • Removing the Runway state from the METAR template (deposit contamination and breaking action).
  • Separating the templates for AIRMET/SIGMET and special air-reports
• Annex VI "Specific Requirements for Providers of Aeronautical Information Services" is rewritten and its content extended. It now contains:
  • SUBPART A – Additional Organisation Requirements For Providers Of Aeronautical Information Services, containing:
    • General Requirements
    • Data Quality Management
    • Aeronautical Information Products
    • Distribution and Pre-Flight Information Services
    • Aeronautical Information Products Updates
    • Personnel Requirements
  • SUBPART B – Additional Technical Requirements For Providers Of Aeronautical Information Services, containing requirements for:
    • Data Quality Management
    • Aeronautical Information Products
    • Distribution and Preflight Information Services
    • Aeronautical Information Products Updates
  • Appendix 1, Contents of the Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP)
  • Appendix 2, NOTAM Format, including instructions for its completion
  • Appendix 3, SNOWTAM Format, including instructions for its completion
  • Appendix 4, ASHTAM Format, including instructions for its completion
• Annex XI "Specific Requirements for Providers of Flight Procedure Design Services" (which used to be just a placeholder) now contains:
  • SUBPART A – Additional Organisation Requirements for Providers of Flight Procedure Design Services
  • SUBPART B – Technical Requirements for Providers of Flight Procedure Design Services
  • Appendix 1, Requirements for Airspace Structures and Flight Procedures Contained Therein
    • Specifications for flight information regions, control areas, control zones and flight information zones
    • Identification of ATS routes other than standard departure and arrival routes
    • Identification of standard departure and standard arrival routes and associated procedures
    • Establishment and identification of significant points
    • Minimum flight altitudes
    • Identification and delineation of prohibited, restricted and danger areas

Amendment applicability date

This amendment is applicable from 27 January 2022.

The following provisions are applicable from 05 November 2020:

• The amendments to Annex V "Specific Requirements for Providers of Meteorological Services".
• The new SNOWTAM format.

The Regulation was amended again in 2020 by Regulation 2020/1177

Amendment objective: to provide more time to the stateholders to implement Regulation 2020/469.

The changes to the applicability dates are as follows:

• The general applicability date of Regulation 2020/469 remains 27 January 2022.
• The following provisions are postponed from 5 November 2020 to 12 August 2021:
  • The requirement to flight crews to report to the controller when the runway braking action is not as good as expected
  • The new SNOWTAM format
  • The METAR template
• The applicability date of the amendments to Annex V "Specific Requirements for Providers of Meteorological Services" to Regulation 2017/373 remains 5 November 2020 with the exception of the METAR template (as stated above).

Regulation 2020/1177 entered into force in August 2020.

The Regulation was amended again in 2021 by Regulation 2021/1338

Amendment scope:

• Updated references to reflect changes in legislation (e.g. references to Regulation 216/2008 replaced by references to Regulation 2018/1139)
• Updated wording of some provisions
• Added a provision for the establishment and maintenance of an occurrence-reporting system, including mandatory and voluntary reporting
• Added provisions for initial mandatory reports for ATM/ANS providers that are not established in a Member State.
• Added provisions for SPECI and space weather advisories.
• Removed the respective values in metres (in situations where feet are used) and m/s (in situations where kt are used).
• Adjusted the times for dissemination and validity of some weather-related messages.
• Removed the Examples column in the templates.

For a more detailed list of changes, refer to the Regulation 2021/1338 article.

Regulation 2021/1338 entered into force in September 2021.

The Regulation was amended again in 2021 by Regulation 2021/665

This Regulation added relevant definitions as well as procedures for coordination by air traffic services providers and for dynamic reconfiguration of the U-space airspace.

Regulation 2021/665 entered into force in May 2021 and is applicable as of January 2023.

The Regulation was amended again in 2022 by Regulation 2022/938

Amendment scope:

• Added 3 and updated 2 definitions in Annex I.
• Updated the following table templates in Appendix 1 to Annex III:
  • Aerodrome data
  • ATS and other routes data
  • Radio navigation aids/systems data
• Updated Appendix 1 (AIP) to Annex VI:
  • ATS routes description requirements (AIP ENR 3)
  • Template for Aerodromes/heliports - introduction (AIP AD 1)
  • Section "Runway surface condition assessment and reporting, and snow plan" (AIP AD 2)
  • Section "Radio navigation and landing aids" (AIP AD 2)
  • Section "Flight procedures" (AIP AD 2)
  • Section "Visual segment surface (VSS) penetration" (AIP AD 2)
  • Section "Radio navigation and landing aids" (AIP AD 3)
• Updated Appendix 3 to Annex VI with the new SNOWTAM format, including a template and instructions for completion.

Regulation 2022/938 entered into force in August 2022.

The Regulation was amended again in 2022 by Regulation 2022/2345

The amendment affects only the Swedish language version and contains a correction of an error in Annex IV as regards alerting service.

This Regulation was amended again in 2023 by Regulation 2023/203

The changes add provisions for information security risk assessment, information security management and reaction to information security vulnerabilities and incidents and are applicable as of 22.02.2026.

This Regulation was amended again in 2023 by Regulation 2023/1771

Provisions related to the certification of new or modified equipment as well as requirements for the use of data link, 8.33 kHz channel spacing and Mode S were added or amended. See dedicated article for further details.

Entry Into Force

This Regulation entered into force in March 2017.

This Regulation applies from 2 January 2020.

This regulation repeals:

• Regulation 428/2008
• Regulation 1034/2011
• Regulation 1035/2011
• Regulation 2016/1377

Articles 12 and 21 of Regulation 677/2011 and Annex VI to that Regulation are deleted.

Provisions regarding repeal and amendment of other Regulations apply from the date of entry into force.

Provisions regarding EASA apply from the date of entry into force.

Provisions regarding data service providers apply from 01.01.2019.

Regulation 2017/373 - Requirements for providers of ATM/air navigation services and other ATM network functions and their oversight (OJ, 08.03.2017)

Regulation 2017/373 - consolidated version (external link), including amendments from Regulation 2020/469, Regulation 2020/1177, Regulation 2021/1338, Regulation 2021/665 and Regulation 2022/938. 

Note: As stated in a disclaimer within the document above, the consolidated text is meant purely as a documentation tool and has no legal effect. The Union's institutions do not assume any liability for its contents. The authentic versions of the relevant acts, including their preambles, are those published in the Official Journal of the European Union and available in EUR-Lex. Those official texts are directly accessible through the links embedded in this document. An example of a provision, missing in the consolidated version is that Article 3 of 2020/469 has not been incorporated (this article contains some wording about the Subject matter and adds/changes several definitions).

Related articles

• Regulation 2018/1139 - Common Rules in the Field of Civil Aviation and Establishing EASA
• Single European Sky (SES) II

Further Reading

EASA

• Easy access rules for ATM - Regulation 2017/373 with integrated guidance material

European Commission

• EUR-Lex Portal: Regulation 2017/373 (available in different languages and file formats)
• EUR-Lex Portal: Regulation 207/373 consolidated version (available in different languages and file formats)
• Air Transport Portal of the European Commission - Single European Sky

EUROCONTROL

• Overview of Regulation No 2017/373 and its AMC/GM, focusing on the management, assessment and oversight of changes