Airways ICAO 2012 Flight Plan

Airways New Zealand has implemented software enhancements to its Domestic and Oceanic Air Traffic Management (ATM) platforms to support the introduction of the new Global Flight Plan Format and Air Traffic Service messages defined by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

ICAO promulgated this amendment to meet the needs of aircraft with advanced capabilities and the evolving requirements of automated ATM systems around the world. States and airline operators have had four years to undertake the significant amount of preparation work needed to facilitate this change.

While some States have elected not to make the changes in their existing ground systems and have purchased systems that convert any new messages to the old format, Airways has developed new software for their current Oceanic and Domestic ATM systems in New Zealand.  This significant change required 45,000 lines of code in the Oceanic Air Traffic Management platform and has undergone extensive internal and external testing with adjacent providers and airlines in order to validate the changes. 

Airways systems now fully support both the old format and the new format ICAO messaging ensuring our airline customers can transition their own flight planning systems in a managed way to meet the 15 Nov 2012 effective date.

This important change demonstrates the expert capabilities within Airways New Zealand’s software and ATM requirements teams and Airways ongoing commitment to supporting its customer’s needs.

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