EASA has published a 'Proposal for a Roadmap on Higher Airspace Operations (HAO)' exploring the challenges of future operations in the airspace above FL550.
As HAO may pose safety, security and environmental risks, EASA created a Task Force composed of European Member States, the European Defence Agency (EDA) and Eurocontrol. This Roadmap summarises the work undertaken by the task force team in the last two years to ensure a uniform approach to safety, security and sustainability of air transport in the EU also in this domain.
The document was delivered to the European Commission on March 10, 2023. It recommends a number of progressive actions, focussing initially on studies, tests and demonstrators, supported by the concept of regulatory sandboxes to allow the first higher airspace operations (not yet existing at large scale in Europe) while learning from these to optimally design the future regulatory framework.