1.1   General

The overall authority for the provision of Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) in Vilnius FIR/UIR for international flights is delegated to the Eurocontrol/Network Manager Operations Centre (NMOC).

1.2   Responsibilities of the NMOC

The NMOC is responsible for:

1. ensuring that traffic flows correspond to the stated capacity of the sectors through which they pass;
2. ensuring that ATFM measures, when necessary, are applied in an equitable manner and in such a way as to reduce as far as possible the penalties to the aircraft operators.

For this purpose, the NMOC applies procedures, which are published in the corresponding ICAO and NMOC documentation.

These procedures have in Vilnius FIR/UIR the same status as procedures explicitly published in this AIP.

1.3   Responsibilities of the air traffic services

Air Traffic Flow Management Service has been established in Vilnius Area Control Centre (ACC) of the state enterprise “Oro navigacija” to liaise between ATC, aircraft operators and the NMOC.

The hours of operation are: H24

ATS at aerodromes will ensure that flights adhere to departure slots issued by the ATFM Service.

In accordance with the provisions of the Regional Supplementary Procedures, Europe (ICAO Doc 7030) and the ATFM Handbook (ICAO EUR Doc 003), flights which do not adhere to their slot will be denied ATC clearance.

However, ATC will make all efforts to enable departing flights to comply with the slot, and small taxiing delays will not be prevent flights from departing.

1.4   Responsibilities of aircraft operators

Aircraft Operators who wish to ensure that they are correctly defined within the NM database and/or want to provide the address where they should receive slot related messages, may send their details to the following:

The slot related messages for Aircraft Operators who have not been defined within the NM database or who cannot be identified from the flight plan will, by default, be sent to the Vilnius ARO.

3.1   Flight plan requirements

AOs filing flight plans for flights departing from within the ATFCM area or from within the ATFCM Adjacent area and entering the ATFCM area, shall assume their flight is subject to ATFCM measures and subject to the requirement to submit a flight plan at least three hours before EOBT.

For flights which are not subject to ATFM measures flight plan shall be submitted to Vilnius ARO or directly to IFPS at least 60 minutes before EOBT.

For flights within Vilnius FIR/UIR flight plan shall be submitted to Vilnius ARO or directly to IFPS at least 30 minutes before ETD.

Changes in EOBT of more than 15 minutes and/or cancellation of flight plans shall be reported immediately to Vilnius ARO or directly to IFPS.

Flight plan and associated messages for flights departing from the Republic of Lithuania international airports to the IFPS Zone are addressed to the IFPS Units ONLY: EUCHZMFP and EUCBZMFP.

Flight plan and associated messages for flights departing from the Republic of Lithuania international airports outside IFPS Zone are addressed to the two IFPS Units and additionally to ATS Units outside IFPS Zone.

• ACK message is used to acknowledge the successful processing of a message.
• MAN message is used to acknowledge that errors have been detected and that it has been referred for manual processing. After successful correction ACK message will be received. If IFPS operator is unable to correct the message, REJ message will be received.
• REJ message will be received if it has been rejected by IFPS. The operator should correct errors and submit a new flight plan to Vilnius ARO or directly to IFPS.

3.2   Slot allocations

Aircraft Operators and pilots of flights departing from the Republic of Lithuania airports into areas where ATFM restrictions are applied shall contact the Vilnius FMP or Vilnius ARO not earlier than one hour and 45 minutes before EOBT and not later than one hour before EOBT in order to receive slot time.

NMOC will calculate departure slots as a CTOT.Recipients of Slot Allocation Messages (SAM) are required to comply with the issued departure slot time and operators shall arrange their flights so as to take-off within slot tolerance window (-5 to +10 minutes of the CTOT). ATC clearance shall be denied to pilots intending to take-off outside CTOT tolerance window.

Pilots of flights which are unable to meet the allocated time shall advise Vilnius ARO.

The following categories of flights are exempted from ATFM measures:

• for a life critical medical emergency evacuation;
• flights which have specific approval from the Office established by the State and has STS/ATFMX;
• flights operating for search and rescue operations;
• flights with “Head of State” on board;
• fire-fighting flights.

The STS indicator is used in ICAO flight plan item 18 to indicate the necessity for “special handling”.The following abbreviations shall be used:

STS/ Reason for special handling by ATS, e.g. a search and rescue mission, as follows:

ALTRV: for a flight operated in accordance with an altitude reservation;

ATFMX: for a flight approved for exemption from ATFM measures by the appropriate ATS authority;

FFR: fire-fighting;

FLTCK: flight check for calibration of navaids;

HAZMAT: for a flight carrying hazardous material;

HEAD: for a flight with Head of State status;

HOSP: for a medical flight declared by medical authorities;

HUM: for a flight operating on a humanitarian mission;

MARSA: for a flight for which a military entity assumes responsibility for separation of military aircraft;

MEDEVAC: for a life critical medical emergency evacuation;

NONRVSM: for a non-RVSM capable flight intending to operate in RVSM airspace;

SAR: for a flight engaged in a search and rescue mission;

STATE: for a flight engaged in military, customs or police services.

Procedures related to IFPS and ATFM can also be found in the Network Operations Handbook, in particular, the IFPS Users Manual and the ATFCM Users Manual are available at the Eurocontrol Library.

3.3   Guidelines for determining the need for the use of STS/ATFMX for an individual flight

The following guidelines should be used to determine whether a flight should be entitled to obtain exemption from the ATFM slot allocation process:

1. if the flight does not operate with all possible delays eliminated, a life or lives may be lost. Such flights shall require specific medical/UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) authorisation in support of the request;
2. the person or persons on board a flight are on State business of such importance that the flight cannot accept any delay;
3. the mission being undertaken by the flight, carried out by or on behalf of the State, is of such importance that any delay will jeopardise the success of the mission;
4. if the safe and expeditious delivery of COVID-19 vaccines is required (upon approval, STS/ATFMX and RMK/VACCINE shall be inserted in item 18 of the flight plan).

If any of the above applies, the flight may be granted approval to use STS/ATFMX by the appropriate authority in the State of departure of that flight, and details shall be passed on to the ATFM Service.

3.4   Procedure for requesting authorization for the use of STS/ATFMX

The operator of a flight seeking approval to insert the indicator STS/ATFMX in item 18 of a flight plan for a flight departing from an aerodrome within Vilnius FIR/UIR shall obtain prior permission from:

a minimum of 3 hours in advance of the flight.

3.5   Replacement flight plan procedure

The procedure is applicable to flights on routes subject to ATFM measures, when it is decided during the pre-flight stage (i.e. within 4 hours of EOBT) to reroute in order to avoid delays on an alternative route when they are possible keeping to the previous flight plan.

When an individual flight plan has been filed, and, in the preflight stage, an alternative route is selected between the same aerodrome of departure and destination, the operator or pilot shall follow the procedures ensuring that:

1. the original flight plan is cancelled by submitting a CNL or changed by CHG message using FF priority to all addresses of the previous flight plan;
2. the replacement flight plan, filed not less than 5 minutes after the CNL message, shall contain inter-alia the original identification (call-sign), the complete new route in Field 15 and as the first element in Field 18, the indication “RFP/Qn” where:
   • “RFP/Q” signifies the replacement FPL;
   • “n” corresponds to the sequence number relating to the replacement flight plan for that particular flight.

EXAMPLE:

• 1st replacement flight plan-ICAO Field 18 - RFP/Q1;
• 2nd replacement flight plan-ICAO Field 18 - RFP/Q2.