Free route airspace
 

yesterday we have successfuly implemented SAXFRA - Slovenian Austrian CrossBorder Free Route Airspace. No routes except some in lower airspace. So far so good. Slovakia joined the party too. So now we have large chunk of airspace, where crews are almost totaly free in selecting their route (Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia). Croatia to join soon.

Well played, how is it going? What flight levels do the lower routes start at? There's work being done to get it implemented in the UK however there are a few large chunks of airspace where it just will not work, although some of our colleagues to the south think it is in already.......

When I was at CATC, a long time ago, one of my instructors pointed out that ATCOs often have an uncanny inbuilt knack of sussing out when things aren't quite as they should be. His exact words were.......

"You get a feeling in your water".

Notwithstanding the quantum advances in technology that have occurred since I heard those words, I have this feeling about 'Free Route Airspace'.

I hope that I'm wrong.

Well done Slovenia, Austria and Slovakia.

Italy is also introducing free route airspace on December 8th: the current ATS routes network at FL335 and above will be removed, with plans to extend the free-route airspace to lower levels in the future. Fingers x'd.

Exactly Zooker, "recent" airspace changes show that introducing more conflict points into airspace isn't desirable and certainly increases controller workload. I don't even want to think what would happen if you let them fly where they want on my sectors, unless Heathrow inbounds are happy to still be at FL360 overhead BIGGIN......

SAXFRA is gnd-UNL, except some parts where they still exist due to service (procedural control). So far so good. No big problems. Before SAXFA the axis Austria-Slovenia-Croatia-Serbia was operating first night and then 24hr long distance direct routes, so this was not absolutely new. I think the companies just love to fill the field 15 in FPL with many DCT, DCT, DCT :)

zooker, it is not absolutely free to be exact. There are limitations in connecting some waypoints, if such trajectory would cross sectors in wrong way (entering just for short period), or if it crosses into non-free route airspace. Generally it is not far from how we operated so far, giving tactical DCTs

zoonoma, it might work in UK too. SAXFRA for instance has some clever things, like mandatory waypoint sequence for certain aerodromes, like Vienna, Munich and some others. Departures from those are regulated too. Its called arrival and departure channeling. There are several waypoints from which sequence is mandatory, and there are at least three if not more such channels for each airport (one from south, north ....)

our project has been nominated for Single European Sky Award

SAXFRA - Slovenian Austrian Cross Border Free Route Airspace - European Commission


short video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEhm...ature=youtu.be

and map

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/sites/...AXFRAChart.pdf

SAXFRA has also been nominated for Jane's ATC Award

Shortlist announced for ATC Awards 2017 | IHS Airport 360