2022 Flight Ops Changes: The Big Ones

Dear Santa…

We do hope we’ve been good little boys and girls this year. Last Christmas we received no presents from you at all, which was disappointing.

We did get one from ICAO that got lost in the post and then turned up in January – an update to the NAT Doc 007. Truth be told, Santa, we didn’t actually like that very much.

It’s been another busy year of international flight ops changes, Santa!

We thought you probably missed most of it, hunkered down in your Arctic grotto, beavering away on all the presents you must be making for us this year. So we’ve written you a little list – just the big stuff that’s happened this year.

If you don’t want to read it all, that’s okay, we know you’re busy! You can get nearly all the same info by playing our Snakes On A Plane & Ladders game that we made! 🐍 🪜

We designed it in bright RED and YELLOW colours to make it easier for you to play in the dim pre-dawn light as you’re zipping around the skies on Christmas Eve! 🎅

You can download a PDF of the game here, or just click on the picture!

Click to download PDF.

In fact, before we get to the long-version list of stuff that’s happened…

Our Christmas Wishlist

No more hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, floods, domestic conflicts, international invasions, drone and missile attacks, or global pandemics please. We’ve put this one at the top, because this is the one we really want the most.
An EU-LISA teddy bear. The one where you press its tummy and it tells you a nice clear definition of what a “carrier” is.
A set of walkie-talkies. We’ll keep one and give the other to North Korea, so they can use it to tell us when they’re launching test missiles.
A big pair of scissors. So when we’re doing flights over Greece or Turkey we can snip out all the pages of whingey, irrelevant Notams they publish about each other.
Some earplugs. We’ll use them in January when the postman knocks on the door with ICAO’s annual NAT Doc 007 present, late again.

Ok, Santa, on to the good stuff – here’s the long-version list of stuff that’s happened…

January

The US went into a ground stop at their west coast airports after North Korea launched a missile. Read
The US delayed their 5G roll out because of concerns at airports. Read
Honduras got new airport – MHPR/Palmerola. Read
UAAA/Almaty airport, Kazakhstan closed (and later reopened) due to violent protests and unrest across the country. Read
The Yemen conflict reached the UAE when several ballistic missiles targeted Abu Dhabi. Read
NFTF/Fua’amotu airport in Tonga closed after the eruption of Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai, and the ash also disrupted some overflights in the South Pacific. Read

February

Airlines started to avoid Ukrainian airspace after Russia’s invasion, and insurance companies started cancelling cover for flights in Ukraine. Read
Singapore mandated RNP4 and RNP10 on some of its main oceanic airway from FL290 and above. Read
NAT Tracks were abolished from FL330 and below. Read

March

As the Russia-Ukraine conflict escalated, Russia brought in “tit for tat” flight bans, including bans on all US operators, and operators had to start finding new routes avoiding Ukraine and Russia. Read
Spillover into Europe from the conflict and “traffic jams” in other airspace started occurring. Read
We first heard mention of EASA’s new dreaded EU-LISA (EES/ETIAS) system. Read
Iran kicked off against Iraq again, sending missiles towards ORER/Erbil region. Read
In the US, the military ran tests on GPS interference and it jammed civilian aircraft. Read
Fuel shortages in Nigeria and bandits at the airport raised concerns. Read
Ethiopia announced a ceasefire between fighting factions in the Tigray region. Read

April

EASA’s new fuel policy was announced and it was really hard to read. Read
A new airport opened in Mexico City (MMSM/Santa Lucia) and everyone said don’t use it. Read
Fuel prices started rising due sanctions particularly on US east coast; and in other countries they started to announce shortages, particularly across Africa. Read
FAA announced new flight planning codes for advanced capabilities. Read
Iceland became completely covered with ADS-B. Read
The mass ATC walkout in Poland was narrowly avoided. Read

May

Reports of flights being tracked for nefarious reasons started to concern BizAv folk. Read
We talked about EMAS because no-one seemed to know what it was. Read
ATC returned to Somalia with Class A reinstated above FL245 during the day. Read
We took a look at some common NAT Conundrums! Read
US eased rules for flights to Cuba. Read

June

Everyone was still confused by EU-LISA, who still couldn’t make it clear which operators need to register to use the new system (i.e. who counted as a “carrier”). Read
The South China Sea dispute got worse with China building islands and putting weapons on them and running lots of military drills. Read
Sri Lanka completely ran out of fuel Read
Bahamas delayed their Click2Clear because no-one understood it. Read
Antigua brought in new Nav/ATC fees that they want in advance if you’re overflying up to FL245. Read
Saudi Arabia risk level was reduced as Houthi attacks drop off. Read
We published a book on European Slot Rules. Read
Kathmandu got RNP (and you should use it). Read
The 5G rollout was delayed in US. Read

July

We decided Safety used to be far more sexy and tried to bring it back again. Read
Flights to/from Israel got easier as Israel got friendlier with their neighbours. Read
EASA published new All Weather Operations stuff and we were all confused by it. Read
EU-LISA is postponed (thank goodness!). Read
VHHH/Hong Kong’s new runway finally opened. Read
ICAO expanded SELCAL to include new codes. Read
The FAA postponed the final phase of Northeast Corridor Atlantic routes project until April 2023. Read
We made a picture book to help people understand the new EASA fuel rules. Read

August

Qatar finally got the go-ahead from ICAO to set up their own airspace. Read
China got angry with Taiwan and held massive drills that shut Taiwan because they effectively surrounded it with prohibited areas. Read
Canada delayed their ADS-B mandate until Aug 2023 to give folk time to install equipment. Read
NAT 006 is updated, and we’re proud of our James Bond pun which no-one else got. Read
EIDW/Dublin opened a new runway. Read
We put together on the London Airport options, made with help from the London Underground tube map publishers, circa 1962. Read
EASA updated their RIM and we posted a reminder of all the things people keep getting into trouble with during ramp checks! Read

September

The hurricane season was in full force with Earl closing Bermuda, Kay closing La Paz in Mexico and then the massive Fiona reaching Canada, and Ian devastating parts of Florida.
A big military exercise threatened to close a chunk of EGGX/Shanwick impacting the NAT, but then it didn’t. Read
EASA delayed their ELT mandate by 2 years. Read
Azerbaijan and Armenia kicked off again and the border airspace closed, then quickly reopened. Read
CYYZ/Toronto capped slots for GA/BA flights. Read
African ATC went on a mega strike! They brought in fake ATC and we put out a big safety alert over it. Read
The FAA extended their Iran and Iraq warnings for another 2 years. Read

October

North Korea sent a missile directly over Japan causing them to issue a public warning. Read
Major airways in Iraq are in close proximity to areas of airspace with high risk from drones and missiles. Read
Florida airports reopened after Hurricane Ian raged through.
We discovered more info on the CPDLC trial in the US and how BizAv are (or aren’t) involved. Read
The FAA published new winter holdover times. Read
Everyone started planning for the Qatar world cup because Doha is small and no-one was sure where to park. Read

November

A cyber attack brought down a fair few Jeppesen planning products. Read
ADS-B privacy issues reared its head again with more groups questioning the privacy and security. Read
Shannon published info on level busts and US BizAv are to blame for a lot of them! Read
KTEB/Teterboro added new waypoints to help with the challenging circle for RWY 01. Read
Canada published a safety watchlist that applies to everyone, everywhere really. Read
The Russia-Ukraine spillover impacted more countries, with a wayward missile hitting Poland and concerns about UAS. Read
Saudi Arabia got CPDLC from FL150 up. Read
We started to worry about Turkey – they are fighting with Syria and Iraq and their southern region is higher risk. Read
Germany issued a warning against low level flights in Myanmar. Read
An Emirates aircraft might have been hijacked. Read

December

Possibly because of power outage issues, but South Africa lost CPDLC and FAOR/Johannesburg Oceanic airspace turned into one big IFBP area for a day or so. Read
Ski season started in Europe with parking restrictions and PPR requirements aplenty. A lot of folks also head off to the Caribbean this time of year. We made our own pirate map. Read
Auckland got bad fuel. Not ideal for long haul flights (so any flight trying to get to Auckland). Read
Someone asked us about weird Mexican timezone changes and we realised that in April 2023 most of Mexico will stop using DST but some places along the border won’t. Highly bamboozling. Read
France banned domestic airline flights under 2.5 hours. Read
KPHL/Philadelphia decided they didn’t want international GA flights heading in there anymore. More

Fare-thee-well, 2022

And that brings us bang up to date, Santa, if you’re still reading.

If not, we hope this whirlwind of flight ops bulletpoints has been of interest to someone out there. Maybe a few of you weary aviation folk who have stuck with us throughout the year 👍

2022 Flight Ops Changes: The Big Ones