National Airspace Policy and National Airspace and Air Navigation Plan

National Airspace Policy and National Airspace and Air Navigation Plan

The first meeting of the advisory forum was held in Wellington on 6 September with the focus being on Annex A of the document entitled National Airspace Policy statement and progressing the National Airspace and Air Navigation Plan. click here

In terms of the policy document we have been asked to provide comment on the policy statement by 7 October and the Air Navigation Plan a meeting will be convened on 20 September to go through the more detailed aspects of the plan with technical experts invited to attend.

MOT are leading the policy development which it anticipates being concluded by March and CAA developing the more detailed plan which they hope to have concluded by the end of next year.

The role of the Forum is to obtain stakeholder views on the policy framework, build a consensus and ensure the key issues are addressed.  Government is looking on the airspace as a national resource which should be allocated efficiently.  The policy statement should be short and cover all of the key points and the plan itself to look at the wide ranging technology changes and interface issues arising from the introduction of PBN and the likes.

An issue raised was consultation with the wider community of stakeholders and in particular other government agencies such as DoC.  Clearly this is an area where AIRCARE and the voluntary compliance regimes developed in that programme can have a major role.

Concerns regarding the policy document were raised including :
• The need to place safety as the pre-eminent consideration
• The Environment and the need for alignment between the airspace policy the national noise standards and local and district plans.  Presently the national noise standards are working in the opposite direction to efficient airspace allocation at some airports
• Service standards and the need for the new technology to be user friendly
• Change management is one of the major challenges and the need for some protocols around how this will occur
• Pilot training and the need for the syllabus to be across change

Sovereignty was raised as an issue but from the perspective of assuring participants that it was about access and not ownership.

The policy framework will form the basis of the more detailed airspace plan.  Development of the airspace plan rests with the CAA and an invitation has been extended to participate in a CAA convened meeting on 20 September to look at the more detailed prescriptions around that plan. click here for more information