The board of Airservices Australia has approved changes to the country's controversial national airspace system (NAS) reforms, which were introduced in November last year and resulted in concerns over reduced safety, writes Emma Kelly.
The most contentious aspects of the NAS reforms included Class E airspace, which relies on pilots seeing and avoiding other aircraft, replacing parts of Class C airspace, where traffic is separated by controllers, and the removal of radio frequency boundaries on aeronautical charts.
Following a number of safety incidents attributed to NAS, Airservices considered several options, including making no changes, reversing the NAS changes, changing Class E airspace, or creating a special version of the airspace to cater for users above regional towered aerodromes.
The board opted to retain Class E airspace, but enhance Class C airspace above towered aerodromes, protecting the arrival and departure of airliners. In addition, some visual procedures will be removed for instrument flight rules aircraft in non-radar en route Class E airspace; procedures for pilots in non-radar airspace immediately above regional towered aerodromes will be improved; and radio frequency boundaries will be reintroduced on charts.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority is working on the safety case for the changes, which are expected to be introduced in November.
Civil Air, the air traffic controllers union which has long opposed NAS, welcomed the latest modifications to thesystem.
Meanwhile, the Airservices board is working on a five-year strategy for airspace reform, which will include the introduction of automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast.
Source: Flight International
