Members of the UK-Ireland FAB have worked together to minimise the impact of increased military danger area activation over Cardigan Bay on civil air traffic routes in the area.
Evolving requirements from the UK Ministry of Defence for military area EGD201A in and around Aberporth, Wales, would potentially have affected the availability of a number of important ATS routes in this area, including arrivals into Dublin from the south east.
However, following discussions by all UK-Ireland FAB partners, a resolution has been agreed in principle that will minimise the impact on the UK, Irish and the wider European commercial air transport network.
This minor modification to existing routes will largely mitigate the operational impact of the Military activity when the danger area is activated. The aim, subject to final safety sign-off, is to have the revised airspace design in place in time for the start of high level operations in the area in June 2016.
In addition, it has been agreed that tactical Flexible Use of Airspace (FUA) arrangements will be included in a Letter of Agreement with Aberporth to ensure that the affected airspace is only closed to civil use for the minimum duration required for live operations.
This is an excellent example of cooperation between the Civil and Military partners of the FAB, in line with best practice implementation of Flexible Use of Airspace principles.