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Introduction

For Route, PANS-AIM requires some basic properties as part of the minimum AIP data set.

For Runway Direction, PANS-AIM requires some basic properties as part of the minimum AIP data set. These are

identifier prefix, flight rules, designator

The diagram below shows the AIXM classes, including the relevant data types, needed to encode that information:

Route Designator

Each instance of a Route is identified by a designator which is used to group together all the segments of that route.

In AIXM 5.1.1, the designator of a route is "composed" by several attributes:

• designatorPrefix
  A prefix for the route designator, indicating whether the route is upper ATS ('U'), reserved for helicopters ('K'), reserved for supersonic flights ('S') or a TACAN route ('T').
  

  Note
  title Note
  TACAN route is neither listed in ICAO Annex 11 nor in PANS-AIM, but added in AIXM 5.1.1 to cover requirements from the military aeronautical information domain.

  
  

• designatorSecondLetter
  The letter of the route designator. Depending on the region, letters may have special significance regarding the route usage limitations.
  
• designatorNumber
  The number of the route designator.
  
• multipleIdentifier
  A suffix for the route designator, indicating alternates for homonymous routes (especially for military training routes).

The route designator shall be compliant with the rules defined by ICAO Annex 11, Appendix 1, section 2 

(see encoding rule below).

Is the description in AIXM for multipleIdentifier correct (see above)? 

Also, shouldn't the name of the attribute be rather designatorSuffix as for the RouteSegment?

Or has the multipleIdentifier a completely different purpose than described in ANNEX 11 Appendix 1?

Should a CR for AIXM 5.2 be entered for Route.multipleIdentifier and RouteSegment.designatorSuffix ? according to Annex 11 Of the three possible characters the third one (after the number) is optional and may be 'F', 'G', 'Y' or 'Z'.

Shall the locationDesignator Attribute ("A textual description of the area in which a designated route is situated.") be used for the AIP data set? If yes shall the same rules as for EAD for the "Area designator" be applied or other rules?

OPS-RTE-4

As the Area designator is not published by States, it is necessary to recommend certain rules for its composition:

1) In case the route corresponds to the ECAC Regional Network, the Area Designator shall be "EUR".

For the Designator of such routes (in accordance with the provisions in Annex 11, Appendix 1, paragraph 2.2.1) the following prefixes are used:

- A, B, G, R - routes which form part of the ECAC Regional Network of ATS routes and are not area navigation routes

- L, M, N, P - area navigation routes (RNAV) which form part of the ECAC Regional Network of ATS routes.

2) If the route is not part of the ECAC Regional Network, the area designator will be defined by the first two letters of the FIR where the route is located. If the start/end segments are crossing a border, the FIR to be selected shall be the one in which the main portion of the segment is located (e.g. LF-ED). FIR must be always selected from South to North, following the same rule as for the ATS route segments. This means that routes not part of the ECAC Regional Network shall never have "EUR" as the area designator, regardless where the route is and how many countries it crosses. Once the Area Designator is allocated, it shall never be modified unless the respective data providers agree on that.

For the Designator of such routes (in accordance with the provisions in Annex 11, Appendix 1, paragraph 2.2.1) the following prefixes are used:

- H, J, V, W - for routes which are not AreaNavigation routes

- Q, T, Y, Z - for Area Navigation (RNAV)routes.

For example, more than one route T101 may exist in the European region with two different Area Designators:

T101, NAPES-NIRAK is a route in Spain and thus gets the Area Designator 'LE-LE'.

T101, BZO-ANDEC is a route between Italy and Germany and thus gets the Area Designator 'LI-ED'.

3) Area Designator shall be "CAN" for routes inside Canada and "NAM" or "PAC" (as appropriate) for routes in USA. Possible combinations as NAM-CAN or CAN-PAC may also exist.

OPS-RTE-5:

A route shall be entered using only one Area Designator. Splitting the ATS route into area designators for different countries shall only be done when the route has no continuation i.e. national routes, or duplicated international routes designators present on different continents when they have no continuation.

If the Route Designator is National keep the route as a separate one unless there is another route with the same designator and a common point. In this case, the routes shall be joined and the Area Designator shall be as well updated after coordination with the involved data providers.

Flight rules

Another item that is identified as being part of the minimum AIP data set is the Information about the flight rules that apply on the route (IFR / VFR).

In AIXM 5.1.1, the Route.flightRule attribute is used for that purpose, which can take the values a shown on the figure below.

Route Type

PANS-AIM Appendix 1 (Aeronautical Data Catalogue) distinguishes between ATS Routes and Other Route. Also, those routes defined in ENR 3.1 - 3.4 may be considered as ATS routes as defined in ICAO Annex 11.

All other routes including those define in PANS AIM ENR 3.5 may be considered as Other routes.

In AIXM 5.1.1, the Route.type attribute is used to encode that information. The corresponding code list provides the following values:

• 
• 'ATS': ATS Route as described in ICAO Annex 11
• 'NAT': North Atlantic Track (part of Organized Track System)
• 'OTHER'

Coding Rules for Basic Data for Route

Coding Examples

The figure below gives a simple example of the encoding of route "UM170" with 4 route segments:

The example above also contains other route usage data, which is coded as either :

• RouteAvailability (the Conditional route (CDR) usage, for example)
• FlightRestriction (the information at the bottom of the table, with route restrictions based on destination or other flight elements)

However, as this data is not required by PANS-AIM, it is currently also not part of these coding guidelines.

The example below shows the encoding of route "UA4", including the mapping from the AIXM UML to AIXM XML:

More coding examples can be found in the Sample AIP Data Set (DONLON).

References