European Regional Monitoring Agency

The European Regional Monitoring Agency (EUR RMA) is responsible for monitoring and supporting aircraft operations in European Reduced Vertical Separation Minima (RVSM) airspace.

The individual responsibilities include:

• Verifying operator compliance with RVSM approval requirements;
• Monitoring aircraft height keeping performance;
• Conducting airspace safety assessments as required by the ICAO Regional Planning Group.

The EUR RMA maintains a database of all operators and aircraft that have been issued an approval to operate with a 1000 ft vertical separation in RVSM airspace, by one of the States accredited to it.

All civilian aircraft intending to operate in designated RVSM airspace are required to be approved by their Competent Authority.

The ERL is a proactive system which contributes to the safe separation of aircraft operating with a 1000 ft. vertical separation in RVSM airspace. It is primarily intended to assist States to comply with their regulatory oversight responsibilities. 

An operator will have a flight plan rejected if it satisfies all 4 criteria:

1. The aircraft registration is listed on the EUR RMA Bulletin of non-RVSM approved aircraft for a minimum of 2 months.
2. The operator files a ‘W’ in item 10 of the flight plan (indicating RVSM approval).
3. The operator files a flight plan within the coverage area of the ERL.
4. The operator files a flight plan at RVSM levels.

All civil aircraft operating in EUR RVSM airspace are required to be RVSM approved.

RVSM approval is indicated by submission of ‘W’ in item 10 of the ICAO flight plan.

The RVSM ERL is embedded within the EUROCONTROL Integrated Initial Flight Plan Processing System (IFPS). Flight plans for any aircraft listed on the ERL (no RVSM approval confirmation has been received from the responsible authority), will be rejected if they include a request to fly in the RVSM airspace of any State which has specifically requested its airspace to be included in the scheme.

Operators who had their FPL rejected and wish to operate in the RVSM airspace should follow these steps:

• If you have a valid RVSM approval please send the details, which must clearly indicate the validity of the approval to operate in RVSM airspace, for the aircraft registration and operator listed, to the NM Ops supervisor, on this email address: [email protected] and add [email protected]  for prompt action.
• Documents such as monitoring results confirmation, RVSM approvals request from the operator, recent FPLs where AO have filed “W” in the item 10 of the flight plan are not the appropriate documentation for the aircraft to be removed from the ERL restriction list.
• Please note that an aircraft RVSM equipped/compliant does not of itself equate to authorisation to operate in RVSM airspace, the aircraft and the operator must have a valid RVSM approval issued by the responsible authority.

Operators that do not have a valid RVSM approval, should contact their responsible authority if they intend to operate in RVSM airspace in the future. Alternatively, the operator can file outside of RVSM airspace and/or the operational area of the ERL.

State aircraft - It is recommended that State aircraft intending to operate with 1000 ft. vertical separation in RVSM airspace should also be RVSM approved. Non-RVSM approved State aircraft are permitted to operate with a 2000 ft. separation in RVSM airspace.

EUR RMA is mandated by ICAO EASPG to support States to monitor the operation of RVSM, including compliance with RVSM approval requirements. 

For any further questions please contact [email protected] 
 

All operators of aircraft approved to fly with a 1000 ft. vertical separation in RVSM airspace are required to participate in the global RVSM height monitoring programme.

Operators can be monitored through various means and in any region.

EUROCONTROL operates one fixed ground based Height Monitoring Unit (HMU) to support monitoring in European airspace.

The European Height Monitoring Unit is deployed at the following location:

• Nattenheim in Germany - 49°56’45”N and 006°33’25”E, located near Bitburg airfield (EDRB, 49°56’42”N and 006°33’54”E). Please note that PPR is required – See the ‘Contact Us’ for the telephone numbers of Maastricht and Karlsruhe UAC Supervisors who can provide more information.

The coverage of each HMU has a radius of 45 NM.

This system is fully automatic and designed to operate 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. However, the operator is advised to confirm the serviceability of the HMU before conducting a dedicated height monitoring flight. Please see the latest HMU status above.

Any aircraft transmitting an ICAO 24-bit aircraft identifier, flying between FL 290 and FL 410 within the operational coverage area of the HMU will be detected by the HMU system.

To ensure the accuracy of the result, it is necessary for the aircraft to fly straight and level for a minimum of five minutes within the coverage area defined above.

In accordance with AIP ENR 1.3-1, as published by the German Authorities, aircraft operators are required to submit a Prior Permission Required (PPR) at least three (3) hours in advance if they intend to fly an aircraft over the Nattenheim HMU specifically for RVSM monitoring purposes.

Advance notifications will help ATC ensure the aircraft can be operated in straight and level flight in the busy and complex nature of the airspace over the HMU and thereby contribute to an accurate height monitoring measurement.

Please use the contact telephone numbers for the Maastricht or Karlsruhe UAC Supervisors for details of how to submit a PPR.

EUROCONTROL implemented an aircraft height monitoring programme using aircraft determined geometric height data embedded in ADS-B transmission messages. Therefore, aircraft equipped with ADS-B Version II no longer have to cross the NTM HMU ground station to be monitored. 

ADS-B data is being gathered and processed within the Agency CNS SHERLOCK platform using more than 100 EMIT receivers covering the European area. Whilst the ADS-B data is currently processed along with the NTM HMU information, ADS-B monitoring will be fully operational by the end of 2026.

Providing the flight produced a successful height monitoring result, confirmation will be available, via the section below, approximately 4 weeks after the flight.

For operators registered or approved within the EUR RVSM region a confirmation will be posted here, only if a valid RVSM approval is listed in the EUR RMA approvals database for the aircraft/operator.

Results for aircraft registered in States accredited to the EUR RMA will be published below.

Results for aircraft registered elsewhere will be published via the RMA for the aircrafts State of registration.

The EASA reference document on RVSM is their Certification Specification and Acceptable Means of Compliance for CS-ACNS.

The following ICAO documents, available for purchase on the ICAO website, are pertinent to RVSM:

• ICAO Doc 4444 - Procedures for Air Traffic Management 
• ICAO Annex 2 - Rules of the Air
• ICAO Annex 6 - Operation of aircraft
• ICAO Annex 11 - Air Traffic Services
• ICAO Doc 7030 - Regional supplementary procedures
• ICAO Doc 9937 - Manual of Operating Procedures and Practices for Regional Monitoring Agencies
• ICAO Doc 9574 - Manual on Implementation of 1000ft VSM between FL290 and FL410 incl.

They are available for purchase on the ICAO website.

Due to differences in technical system architecture, some military aircraft have difficulty in complying with RVSM specifications. However, within European RVSM airspace, non-RVSM approved State aircraft operating as General Air Traffic (GAT) shall be provided with a minimum vertical separation of 600 m (2000 ft.) instead of 300 m (1000 ft.) from all other IFR aircraft, on the condition that appropriate entries are made in fields 8, 10 and 18 of the flight plan (an ''M'' in item 8, no ''W'' in item 10 and ''STS/NONRVSM'' in item 18).

Military authorities must be aware that any deviation from the initial aircraft type certificate – through a Supplemental Type Certificate for example – will necessitate an RVSM compliance check for the new design. Some States have a regulator for military/State aircraft requiring the same compliance, training, maintenance, approval oversight as its civilian counterpart.

State aircraft with RVSM approval, and with a ''W'' recorded in item 10 of the flight plan, can operate in designated RVSM airspace with 1000 ft. separation from other IFR aircraft. To help ensure the safe and efficient operations of State and military aircraft in an RVSM environment, guidance can be provided to military users, which takes into account the specific nature of their needs.

For further information on the operation of State aircraft in designated RVSM airspace, please consult our Guidelines for the Certification and Operation of State Aircraft.

Each state is attributed to a Regional Monitoring Agency (RMA). A list of States and their designated RMA can be found in ICAO Doc 9937.

The following websites provide links to other RMAs: