Analysis

NOTA, SOTA and BOTA transition areas lower limit decreased

Although of little use to most operators, the vertical limits of NOTA, SOTA and BOTA are going to be moved down from FL60 to FL55. This practically means that FL55 cannot be used for VFR flights especially off the coast of Ireland anymore.

Oceanic clearances abolished

There will be no need for an oceanic clearance as we have known it for ages, i.e. by obtaining your departure clearance at the departure aerodrome, you are also cleared to cross the Atlantic in the same way as you are cleared along any other non-Atlantic route. Crews are still required to send a message containing the estimated time over an oceanic entry point, the requested level, the speed (can be the speed recommended by the FMS in ECON mode) and the highest acceptable level. However, such a message will be automatically acknowledged by the system. Aircraft unable to send the message via ACARS will be required to pass the respective information by voice, the same as those whose RCL gets rejected. If ATC finds the announced speed or flight level unacceptable, it will clear the aircraft to maintain a different speed or climb/descend to a different level. RCL is to be sent at defined times before reaching the oceanic entry as has been done until now.

Speed

With respect to speed, the aircraft can continue to operate in the ECON mode (i.e. a variable speed) after entering the oceanic airspace, and, if it changes by more than M 0.02, it must inform the ATC of the change, yet it is not necessary to maintain the speed stated in RCL or amended thereafter unless the ATC specifically clears the aircraft to maintain a fixed speed.

Squawk

The change from the last assigned squawk to 2000 is to be done 10 minutes after the entry point (as opposed to the current 30 minutes) with the exception of Reykjavik where the assigned code is to be retained until informed by ATS do change it.

Communication failure procedures

In light of the current state of equipment, loss of HF communication is not considered a communication failure, and CPDLC, satcom or relay to another aircraft via VHF shall be used instead. Only if an aircraft experiences a failure of all communication equipment (HF, VHF, satcom and CPDLC), squawk 7600 is to be used. As there will be no oceanic clearance anymore, the route, speed and level to be flown in such as case is the last cleared one (not the flight planned one) until the oceanic exit point.