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
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 complementary letter 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).
Note
According ICAO Annex 11 , a route or a portion thereof may be implemented as controlled route, advisory route or flight information route, i.e. the route designator suffix (last character) may be different for certain route segment(s) of a route. In AIXM 5.1.1, this can be encoded by using the designatorSuffix attribute of the RouteSegment feature.
This attribute can take the values:
- 'F' (ICAO) Advisory service only is provided on a portion of the route
- 'G' (ICAO) Flight information service only on a portion of the route
- 'OTHER'
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
| Identifier | Data Encoding Rule | Justification | Data Verification Rule (UID) | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RTE-101 | Route.designatorSecondLetter is mandatory. | Minimum AIP data set | AIXM-5.1_RULE-1A330E | In PANS-AIM also the Route.designatorPrefix is listed as minimum AIP data set. As many routes do not have a prefix it is not considered to be mandatory |
| RTE-102 | Route.designatorNumber is mandatory. | Minimum AIP data set | AIXM-5.1_RULE-1A3395 | |
| RTE-103 | Route.flightRule is mandatory | Minimum AIP data set | TBD | |
| RTE-104 | A Route must have at least one RouteSegment. | Data consistency | TBD | |
| RTE-105 | The route designator shall be compliant with the rules defined by ICAO Annex 11, Appendix 1, section 2. The rule consists therefore of the following parts:- The route designator consists at most of 6 uppercase characters and ciphers.- The designator starts with one or two uppercase characters and is followed by a number between 1 and 999 without leading zeros and may end with an additional character.- Of the three possible characters the first one is optional and may be 'K', 'U' or 'S'.- Of the three possible characters the second one is mandatory and may be 'A', 'B', 'G', 'H', 'J', 'L', 'M', 'N', 'P', 'Q', 'R', 'T', 'V', 'W', 'Y' or 'Z'.- Of the three possible characters the third one (after the number) is optional and may be 'F', 'G', 'Y' or 'Z'.- The following characters are not allowed in any position: 'C', 'D', 'E', 'I', 'O' and 'X'. | ICAO Annex 11 | TBD | |
| RTE-108 | Inside an AIP data set, the RouteSegment associated with the same Route should be encoded in one direction (a) no point should be the start of two distinct RouteSegment and (b) no point should be the end of two distinct RouteSegment. | Data consistency | TBD | puts the responsibility on each State to coordinate the encoding with its neighbors. |
| RTE-109 | If a Route is continues in a neighbouring State/Territory, then the same order of encoding the RouteSegment should be applied - when considering the AIP Data Set for two adjacent State/Territory (a) no point should be the start of two distinct RouteSegment associated with the same Route and (b) no point should be the end of two distinct RouteSegment associated with the same Route. | Data consistency | TBD | The responsibility is on each State to coordinate the encoding with its neighbours. |
| RTE-106 | The value 'OTHER' shall not be used for Route.designatorPrefix. | AIXM 4.5 / ICAO Standard | AIXM-5.1_RULE-C2D41 | |
| RTE-107 | The value 'OTHER' shall not be used for Route.multipleIdentifier. | AIXM 4.5 / ICAO Standard | AIXM-5.1_RULE-C2D42 | |
| RTE-108 | The value 'OTHER' shall not be used for Route.designatorSecondLetter. | AIXM 4.5 / ICAO Standard | AIXM-5.1_RULE-C2D43 | |
| RTE-109 | The Route.designatorNumber must be an integer between 1 and 999. | ICAO Annex 11 | AIXM-5.1_RULE-128630 |
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 AIP Data Set - Specimen (DONLON).
| No. | Description | XPath Expression |
|---|---|---|
| RTE-EX-01 | Lower ATS Route | //aixm:RouteTimeSlice[@gml:id ='RTE_A6'] |
| RTE-EX-02 | Upper ATS Route | //aixm:RouteTimeSlice[@gml:id ='RTE_UA4'] |
| RTE-EX-01 | RNAV Route | //aixm:RouteTimeSlice[@gml:id ='RTE_UL123'] |
| RTE-EX-01 | Helicopter Route | //aixm:RouteTimeSlice[@gml:id ='RTE_HK123'] |