\nEvery year, millions of pilgrims travel to Mecca and other sites in Saudi Arabia – and this changes the predominant traffic flow over the African continent. ATC in the FIRs most affected put in place standard routings to help flow that traffic.<\/p>\n
Normally, traffic is very much north-south predominant, with Europe-Africa flights being the main flow. When Hajj operations start up, a good amount of traffic starts operating east-west (ie. Africa-Saudi Arabia and vice versa), and this is something to be aware of when cruising along at FL330 with spotty HF comms.<\/p>\n
So, in addition to the normal IFBP belt and braces<\/a>\u00a0on 126.9, keep an eye out for a much higher amount of crossing traffic during the coming months.<\/p>\n The FIR’s affected are: Algiers, Accra, Brazzaville, Dakar, Jeddah, Kano, Khartoum, N’Djamena, Niamey, Roberts, and Tripoli.<\/p>\n Of these, watch out for Tripoli<\/strong> – risk remains high across Libyan airspace<\/a> at all flight levels, and multiple countries have \u201cdo not fly\u201d<\/strong> warnings in place. There are daily airstrikes<\/strong> taking place, severe limitations in ATC services, and massive areas of the FIR are without surveillance and communications capabilities. Malta FIR<\/strong> is currently managing all east-west routes in this airspace, and operators can contact them for additional information on email:\u00a0airspace.cell@maltats.com<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n The Hajj routings are contained in this\u00a0ASECNA AIP Supplement<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n
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