Eurocontrol Facilitates Improvement in Black Sea Routing

Air navigation service providers (ANSPs) for Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey implemented a “significant airspace project” at their interfaces to address the handling of traffic in the Black Sea area, Eurocontrol announced late last week. This improvement is intended to provide “extra options at those interfaces and has the potential for allowing these ANSPs to safely and efficiently manage additional traffic flows,” as well as address potentially complex situations resulting from the ongoing crisis as Russia and Ukraine vie for control over the Black Sea area.

Close cooperation between the network manager, EASA and the Ukrainian authorities also resulted in the removal of the April 3 EASA Safety Information Bulletin (SIB) concerning routes L851 and M861 in the KyivUIR/Simferopol Flight Information Region (FIR) over the Black Sea. The SIB, accompanied by recommendations from both ICAO and Eurocontrol, warned operators that airspace controlled by the Simferopol FIR should be avoided as more than one air traffic control agency controlling flights within the same airspace “could have serious safety implications.”

Those two routes are now available for flight planning and Eurocontrol encouraged operators to assess their options in using these routes.