EASA ‘Sunny Swift’ acknowledges Airspace Complexity

“Making airspace more and more complex is increasing the risk of airspace infringements.”

Sunny Swift Issue 19:
Airspace Complexity – Part 1

Every pilot has faced challenges with airspace complexity when planning or taking a flight – this latest edition of Sunny Swift is the first in a two part series designed to provide some useful tips on coping with this problem. In this first part, Edition 19, Sunny is helping one of the club members to plan a cross-border flight from Germany to France.

The pilot is confused about the maze of airspace limitations, restrictions and other factors to take into consideration and this article looks at the strategic planning aspects prior to the flight. This includes considering things that might happen even on the return flight that could change the situation. It is important to think ahead and plan for the unexpected – this helps a lot to reduce the workload once you are in the air.

In the context of this article it is also important to understand that General Aviation have to share the airspace with many other users, the military , commercial airlines and even emergency medical services. The number of airspace users is what leads to much of the complexity that we address in this article. It is the challenge of the national authorities to balance all the different needs and to create an airspace that serves all the different parts of the aviation system. This isn’t always perfect and the EASA GA Roadmap Team works closely with the national authorities and other stakeholders to learn from good practice and continually improve the situation.

The next edition will focus on handling the airspace complexity at a tactical level during the flight – stay tuned…..

Happy landings!

The EASA GA Team.