{"id":18674,"date":"2022-06-20T11:46:19","date_gmt":"2022-06-20T15:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/?p=18674"},"modified":"2022-06-20T11:57:29","modified_gmt":"2022-06-20T15:57:29","slug":"theres-a-blob-of-airspace-causing-issues-in-the-nat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/theres-a-blob-of-airspace-causing-issues-in-the-nat\/","title":{"rendered":"There’s a blob of airspace causing issues in the NAT"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why is there a huge blob of restricted airspace (and several smaller blobs too) right over the spot where folk like to leave the NAT HLA?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thanks, France. Their big chunk of military airspace bordering the NAT, that they regularly activate, definitely does cause a lot of planning issues, so we figured we would take a look at it…<\/p>\n

What (where) is the problem?<\/h4>\n

The problem is in the\u00a0LFFF\/Brest FIR,\u00a0<\/strong>which as you can see below borders the NAT HLA BOTA bit. In fact, every exit\/entry from the NAT into French airspace is via the Brest FIR\/UIR border, so as you can imagine, a whopping great military danger zone<\/strong> just the other side of it is going to be a little in the way.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Where is Brest?<\/p><\/div>\n

Which is exactly what the problem is.<\/h4>\n

That big danger zone means when folk submit their\u00a0flight plans\u00a0which have them routing over the Atlantic and into France another neighbouring places, they are getting rejected.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, an alternative routing option is offered, but the NAT exits are way up on EGTT\/London airspace which means\u00a0significantly longer routings,<\/strong> which nobody wants.<\/p>\n

There is also a bit of an issue with the automated Eurocontrol flight planning system.<\/strong> It doesn’t always immediately reject your flight plan – sometimes it waits until midnight so you get a nice message in the morning, not too long before your flight which you now have to replan…<\/p>\n

\"\"

A very accurate representation of the military ‘blobs’<\/p><\/div>\n

So the military are to blame?<\/h4>\n

That might not be entirely fair, but it is down to some active military zones<\/strong> that most of these route plans seem to not be successful.<\/p>\n

The main one we’ve seen causing trouble is in AIP SUP 045\/22<\/a>, which is valid from 24 March 2022 to 22 March 2023.<\/strong> Activation of the area is possible H24, and they activate it a lot.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The Zone of NoGo (slightly more accurately shown)<\/p><\/div>\n

You can find all the temporary activated areas and timings<\/strong>\u00a0here on the French AIP SUP page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We also saw one from June 15-23<\/a>. “Ocean HIT 2022′\u00a0<\/em>uses the same sort of area and irritatingly coincides with a different exercise (HYDRA) on June 20.<\/strong> This means poor old EGGX\/Shanwick is going to be dealing with most of the crossing traffic that day and there is likely to be a medium impact for flights.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What can you do about it?<\/h4>\n

Not a huge amount really. If the areas are active you aren’t going to be able to operate through them. We asked around, and folk said they’ve been doing a lot of LIZAD and NAKID routings.\u00a0<\/strong>Some folk have reported simply planning higher levels and that’s apparently worked.<\/p>\n

You can attempt to get inflight re-routings. You can also try these chaps who provide the actual time slots of activation to give you a better picture:<\/p>\n

CCMAR ATLANTIQUE\u00a0Phone : +33(0)2 98 31 82 69<\/strong> \/ +33(0)2 98 84 49 57 (backup).<\/p>\n

\"\"

One routing option we found that isn’t toooo bad<\/p><\/div>\n

Anything else to know about?<\/h4>\n

The French and German Navy have been using some airspace in EGGX\/Shanwick<\/strong> which occasionally gets in the way of some of the Tango routes.<\/p>\n

All of the upcoming military exercises in Europe are notified through the Eurocontrol Network Operations Portal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The spot to look at<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why is there a huge blob of restricted airspace (and several smaller blobs too) right…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":18706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[21,20],"class_list":{"0":"post-18674","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-briefings","8":"tag-nat","9":"tag-north-atlantic"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18674"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18863,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18674\/revisions\/18863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}