Bobcat will cut flight time to Europe from Asia

[stickyb]

from the bangkok post


Flight times to Europe should be shortened by up to an hour from Thursday when Aerothai launches a new regional air traffic flow management system.


The Bay of Bengal Cooperative Air Traffic Flow Management System (Bobcat) will cut travelling time for west-bound flights departing from South Asia and Southeast Asia, Priti Hetrakul, president of Aeronautical Radio of Thailand (Aerothai), said yesterday. The Bobcat system was designed to ease air traffic congestion over Afghanistan between the hours of 3am and 6.59am.

The full article is here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/02Jul2007_news04.php

[Feather #3]

Ahhh...so Afghan airspace has gone RVSM then......;)

G'day ;)

[FullWings]

Funny it being announced now as 'BOBCAT' has been up and running for some time. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not because it can be difficult/impossible to keep within the time restraints for the Afghan border if you take off from somewhere in the far east. If you get F310 instead of F390 or M0.75 instead of M0.85 the timings go all over the place, not to mention delays getting airborne. The good news is that I haven't heard of anyone being turned back at the border (yet)...

[slam_dunk]

Since Bobcat is in force i've flown the route a couple of times.
Usely it's no problem. You get your bobcat time in the header of your nav plan which leads to an AWUT ( All wheels up time) . You've got a play of five minutes on your AWUT time.
ATC (at departure A/D ) is usely cooperative in this.

[Fright Level]

And what a stupid system. Singapore are pretty strict with your push time in relation to your Bobcat "wheels up" time despite the Afghan border being 6 hours away. I could easily adjust the crossing time by +/- 20 mins in that time, and if they need more delay then an enroute hold? Tail wagging dog again.