This circular amends and replaces circular A01 / 08 of 5th June 2008 relating to flight plan filing procedures in Casablanca FIR/UIR. Since June 5, 2008, Morocco has entrusted the management of flight plans in FIR/UIR Casablanca to the Integrated Initial Flight Plan Processing System (IFPS). Morocco therefore becomes part of the IFPS Zone The following paragraphs describe the procedures for filing flight plans for aircraft to operate in Casablanca FIR / UIR.
2.1. Flight plans and associated messages for IFR/GAT1 flights intending to operate within the Casablanca FIR/UIR shall no longer be addressed to ATS Units within the Casablanca FIR/UIR. The only addresses which need to be entered for the portion of the flight within the Casablanca FIR/UIR are those of the two IFPS Units at Haren (Brussels) and Bretigny (Paris), as detailed below. Guidance is given below for the addressing of flight plan and associated messages in respect of flights which proceed beyond the boundaries of the IFPS Zone.
2.2. Aircraft Operators shall submit flight plans directly to IFPS for all IFR/GAT flights, or portions thereof, departing from within the Casablanca FIR/UIR. Flight plans for flights departing outside the Casablanca FIR/UIR and operating into or overflying the Casablanca FIR/UIR shall be submitted in accordance with the procedures published by the State within which the aerodrome of departure is located.
2.3. Aircraft Operators which make use of Repetitive Flight Plans (RPLs) are requested to ensure that RPL data for flights into, departing from or overflying the Casablanca FIR are submitted to the RPL Section of the Network Manager (NM). RPL Files should preferably be submitted in electronic format via E-Mail or alternatively as paper copy via SITA or post. Further information can be obtained by contacting the RPL Supervisor at:
E-Mail: rpl@eurocontrol.int Tél.: +32-2-7451957
2.4. RPL Submissions, both NLST and RLST,shall be sent to the RPL Team no later than 4 working days before the first RPL in that file is to be generated to the IFPS. RPL submissions that relate to the following season shall be submitted to the RPL team not earlier than the first day of October for the winter season, or the first day of March for the summer season.
2.5. Flight plans shall be submitted to the IFPS for processing at least three hours before the EOBT where possible. The IFPS shall also accept for processing those messages that are, for operational reasons, filed less than three hours before the EOBT of that flight. Flight plans may be submitted up to a maximum of 120 hours, or five days, in advance of the EOBT of that flight plan. Those flight plans that are submitted more than 24 hours in advance of the flight shall include the date of flight.
2.6. RPLs shall be submitted to the RPL team either as a New List (NLST) or Revised List (RLST). - An NLST shall contain only new “+” RPLs - An RLST shall contain when the file contains “-“ RPLs or a combination of “-“ and “+” RPLs (cancellations or changes to the existing RPLs).
2.7 After successful reception of an RPL submission the Aircraft Operator (AO) shall receive an acknowledgement of the receipt of that submission from the RPL team.
The acknowledgement shall include the serial number of that submission, if present, and the number of RPLs in that submission. If no acknowledgement is received from the RPL team within 2 working days of dispatch, the AO should contact the RPL team to confirm the reception of that submission.
2.8 An ACK message shall automatically be sent by the IFPS to the message originator when a received message has been successfully processed either automatically or following manual intervention by the IFPS staff
3.1 Flights departing an aerodrome within the Casablanca FIR/UIR and remaining wholly within the IFPS Zone 3.1.1 Flight plan and associated messages need ONLY be a addressed to the two IFPS Units as follows: For AFTN - EUCHZMFP and EUCBZMFP For SITA - BRUEP7X and PAREP7X Note 1: BOTH IFPUs must be addressed for all flight plan and associated messages. Note 2: Specific addresses for any VFR or OAT portions flights shall be added by the originator preferably by using the re-addressing function described in paragraph below
3.2. Flights entering or overflying the casablanca FIR/UIR 3.2.1 For that portion of the flight within the Casablanca FIR/UIR, only the two IFPUs need be addressed as indicated in paragraph above.
3.3 Flights departing an aerodrome within Casablanca FIR/UIR and then exiting the IFPS Zone.
3.4 The re-addressing function
3.4.1. Any additional address to be included should be placed after the originator information line and immediately before the open bracket which indicates the beginning of the message. An example of an AFTN message with such additional addresses is given below:
ZCZC BOC548 250925
ZCZC BOC548 250925 MB
FF EUCHZMFP EUCBZMFP
250920 GMMNZPZX
AD ADDRESS1 ADDRESS2
ADDRESS3 ADDRESS4
ADDRESS 5
ADDRESS6 ADDRESS7 AD
ADDRESS8
(FPL-RAM480-IS -B735/M-SXYR/C -GMMN1430 -……… -………
The following rules apply: (i) The extra address lines must begin with the keyword AD to distinguish them from other comment lines which may be present. (ii) The extra address lines must be consecutive (no other comment lines between them), and they must be immediately before the line containing the open bracket. (iii) There must be no more than 7 additional addresses per line, and each must be of 8 characters.
4.1 Flight plan originators wishing to test FPLs with the IFPUV, prior to their submission to the operational IFPS, may submit them via either AFTN or SITA to one of the following addresses :
RSFTA : EUCHZMFV
SITA : BRUEY7X
4.2. Test flight plans may be submitted with a DATE OF FLIGHT (DOF) up to 120 hours (5 days) in advance by means of DOF/ in Item 18, in the format DOF/yymmdd where “yy” is the year indicator, “mm” is the month and “dd” is the date. The system will respond to flight plan submission by means of a Reply Message in the form of either an ACKNOWLEDGEMENT (ACK) which indicates that the FPL would pass automatic processing or a REJECT (REJ) which indicates a failure. In the case of REJ the Reply Message will contain a system generated indication of the reason for failure. The IFPUV therefore does not generate MANUAL (MAN) messages.
4.3. Every Reply Message from the IFPUV contains the phrase (This message has been sent by a test system and must not be used operationally). This message is added to ensure that there is no confusion between submissions to the test system and those to the operational IFPS.
4.4. The IFPUV is not connected to the operational IFPS and test messages are neither distributed nor stored in the system. Since FPLs are not stored in the IFPUV, flight plan associated messages (i.e. CHG, DLA, CNL, RQP,etc.) are rejected by the IFPUV with the message: “ERROR: no existing filed flight plan matches this message”.
Further detail concerning all aspects of IFPS operations can be found in the IFPS User Manual, which is available via the NM Library at :
https://eurocontrol.int/publication/ifps-users-manual
Note: the abbreviation GAT stands for "General Air Traffic" and is defined within Europe as "flights conducted in accordance with the regulations and procedures promulgated by State civil aviation authorities and operating under the control or authority of the civil ATS organisation". The converse of GAT is "Operational Air Traffic (OAT)" which is defined as "flights conducted outside civil controlled airspace and which operate in accordance with military air traffic service procedures and which as a result do not require systematic addressing to civilian ATS Units".