The European Satellite Services Provider (ESSP) was created in 2001 by representatives of Europe’s key air navigation service providers. Through a European Commission (EC) contract, the organisation is responsible for the operations and maintenance of the system and the provision of satellite navigation services with the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) until the end of 2013.
As of 1 October 2009, the EC has declared the EGNOS open service and its signal in space (SIS) available to all users except for civil aviation and safety of life (SoL) applications. On 12 July 2010 the French National Supervisory Authority (NSA) delivered the ESSP with the certification of the air navigation service provider, according to the Single European Sky Regulation 2096/2005. This certification is a prerequisite for ESSP to provide navigation services to airspace users. It should allow the EC to declare the SoL service operational in the course of 2011.
Egis has been selected to conduct the quality and safety audits related to the implementation of ESSP safety and quality management systems (SMS/QMS). The audit team is made of a quality expert and a safety expert from Egis Avia. The sites to be audited each year for a three-year period are the following:
- The mission control centres MCC Torrejon (AENA Spain), MCC Swanwick (NATS UK), MCC Langen (DFS Germany), MCC Ciampino (ENAV Italy)
- Training entity, Madrid (AENA)
- Logistic entity, Langen (DFS)
- ESSP facilities (Toulouse and Madrid)
The audits baseline is composed of the documents of the ESSP safety and quality management systems (SMS/QMS). These systems are compliant with the requirements of EC regulations on:
- The provision of air navigation services
- Safety oversight in air traffic management
- Interoperability of the European air traffic management network
- Software safety assurance system to be implemented by air navigation service providers
ESSP quality management system is compliant with ISO9001:2008 requirements. The audit methodology is based on ISO19011:2002 recommendations.
Conducting ESSP audits will enable to control its compliance with the above mentioned legislation and the effective application of its SMS/QMS; two prerequisites in the perspective of a full EGNOS service implementation.