Aircraft shall only be operated in designated airspace where a reduced vertical separation minimum of 300 m (1 000 ft) applies between flight level (FL) 290 and FL 410, inclusive, if the operator has been granted an approval by the competent authority to conduct such operations.
To obtain an RVSM operational approval from the competent authority, the operator shall provide evidence that:
the RVSM airworthiness approval has been obtained;
procedures for monitoring and reporting height-keeping errors have been established;
a training programme for the flight crew members involved in these operations has been established;
operating procedures have been established specifying:
the equipment to be carried, including its operating limitations and appropriate entries in the MEL;
flight crew composition and experience requirements;
flight planning;
pre-flight procedures;
procedures prior to RVSM airspace entry;
in-flight procedures;
post-flight procedures;
incident reporting;
specific regional operating procedures.
Aircraft used for operations in RVSM airspace shall be equipped with:
two independent altitude measurement systems;
an altitude alerting system;
an automatic altitude control system;
a secondary surveillance radar (SSR) transponder with altitude reporting system that can be connected to the altitude measurement system in use for altitude control.
a total vertical error (TVE) of ± 90 m (± 300 ft);
an altimetry system error (ASE) of ± 75 m (± 245 ft); and
an assigned altitude deviation (AAD) of ± 90 m (± 300 ft).