Civil Municipal - Oct 2023

9 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 10 OPENING LINES Source - https://nbaa.org/, First published Sept 21, 2023 The North Atlantic (NAT) Systems Planning Group recently announced impactful changes to oceanic crossing procedures in the region – oceanic clearances with route, altitude and speed will no longer be issued after April 9, 2024. New lost communications contingency procedures also will soon be published. Andreas Meyer, the International Business Aviation Council’s (IBAC’s) director, ICAO liaison, explained increases in air traffic, plus the expanded use of data communications (DataComm), led to these changes. “These procedure changes are the result of several years of discussions among stakeholders and regulators,” said Meyer. “The current oceanic clearance procedures made sense in the past, but more modern and dynamic tools are better suited to meet the performance- based navigation and flight operations.” Most of the time, pilots are cleared for the exact route, altitude and speed they filed, Sam Schofield, specialty and enrichment instructor at FlightSafety International, explained. “Unless you’re getting a change to the routing, you’re essentially cleared in accordance with your flight plan,” said Schofield. “Pilots should be prepared – you won’t get a NORTH ATLANTIC OCEANIC CLEARANCE CHANGES COMING IN 2024