Purpose and Scope

These pages contain the coding guidelines for the minimum and conditional data items of the En-route Holding subject as defined in PANS-AIM:

A predetermined manoeuvre which keeps an aircraft within a specified airspace while awaiting further clearance.

AIP context

In an AIP, En-route Holding information may be published in the following sections:

ENR 3.6 En-route Holding

According to PANS-AIM "ENR 3.6 En-route Holding" may be left blank and a reference to the data set availability shall be provided when the AIP Data Set is provided.

The figure below shows the basic structure of a holding pattern¹:

Note

In the scope of this documentation, only en-route holdings are discussed. En-route holding patterns are included on en-route aeronautical charts.

Terminal holding patterns are included on aeronautical charts for the geographical area of an airport or heliport.

The latter and mandatory holdings, i.e. defined in a terminal procedure (SID STAR, Instrument approach procedure) where execution is part of the source defined flight path are not part of the AIP data set guidelines.

AIXM Model Overview

The figure below shows the main AIXM 5 classes used for the holding concept.

The HoldingPattern class is used to code the basic data of an en-route holding, such as the inboundCourse, the turnDirection, upperLimit, lowerlimit and speedLimit.

The HoldingPattern is based on a holdingPoint, which is a SignificantPoint. The significant point may be a DesignatedPoint or a Navaid (see also SignificantPoint (Overview)). The designator of the significant point will also be the identifier of the Holding.

The HoldingPattern has an outboundLegSpan. This may be an endTime defined by a duration or an endDistance defined by a length or an endPoint defined by a significant point.

The latter case identifies the second waypoint of a two-point holding.

The HoldingPattern may be controlled by a Unit providing a Service that uses a certain radioCommunication.

Coding Examples

See child pages for coding examples.

Child Pages

References

¹ Source: ICAO PANS-OPS

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