NEWS FLASH
Less than a year after signing a memorandum of cooperation aimed towards merging the two Free Route Airspace areas of SAXFRA (Slovenian Austrian Cross-border Free Route Airspace) and SEAFRA (the South-East Axis Free Route Airspace project involving Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro), the South East Common Sky Initiative Free Route Airspace (SECSI FRA) has been successfully implemented. On February 1, the SECSI FRA went operational offering airspace users significant benefits along the South East Axis, by delivering the shortest route options from Central Europe to South Eastern Europe. The benefits gained through the SECSI FRA are substantial. Based on the shortest route assignment potential savings per day are up to 1.940 NM in flight distance, 285 minutes in flight time, a reduction in fuel consumption of 8.000kg and a reduction in CO2 emissions of 25.500kg.
SECSI FRA is expected to deliver potential savings of 600.000 to 700.000 NM in flight distance per year. It will make more options available when determining the user-preferred trajectory. Full cross-border FRA allows airlines to take better advantage of wind or adapt to network disruptions. The better use of FRA options at flight planning level improve predictability and reduce air traffic control workload. This initiative not only works towards achieving the goals of the European Commission regarding the implementation of “Free Route” across Europe but also fulfils airspace user´s requests for having multiple route options available for the same city-pair. The cooperation of SAXFRA and SEAFRA will produce one of the largest cross-border Free Route airspaces in Europe and is a major step towards achieving a common European Free Route Airspace by 2022.
Blah-blah-blah but you still can not overfly Serbia if your destination (or even your alternate airport) is Pristina. Pathetic.
ReplyDeleteYou can. You just have to fill in LYPR instead of BKPR in your flight plan destination or alternate field. Jus two letters nothing more.
DeleteSo what?I cant see what is pathetic there?
DeleteExactly. It's not Serbia's problem flights to PRN can't overfly the rest of the territory.
DeleteIt's not at all as you present it. In order for overlies to happen a mutual decision by both sides have to be reached which is subject to talks in Brussels which are moving slowly, and there are more pressing issues then overflies.
DeleteIn fact Serbia wanted to separate aviation issues with Kosovo from the Brussels talks so decisions can be made more quickly and issues resolved more easily so Air Serbia could start flights to Pristina as well. Kosovo side rejected this and said it must be linked to Brussels talks.
So you can overfly the entire world with destination BKPR in the flight plan, just not Serbia. Now let's think long and hard who is at fault here.
DeleteLYPR is dead. Airspace shouldn't be politicized because no country will compromise the national interest for more air freedoms. It didn't work in West-Berlin, N. Cyprus, Israel, Qatar and it won't work in Kosovo either. Because of this stupidity of Serbian politicians, AirSerbia and the entire airline industry is suffering now. If I was Kosovo, I would go even further and ban all Serbian imports into Kosovo and see who will loose more. This is the only language they understand.
DeleteAs both Serbia and Kosovo (represented by UNMIK) are signatories to CEFTA treaty, banning any (and all) imports from other CEFTA member party would constitute a serious breach of the treaty and effectively cancel the party at fault's trade relations with the entire region.
DeleteAs Serbia is by far the largest CEFTA economy at this point, it's not far fetched to assume other CEFTA states would chose to remain integrated with Serbia, rather than Kosovo, simply having their own economic interests in mind.
So, really, Kosovo's trade embargo against Serbia would be an economic suicide, similar to Brexit.
Also, Kosovo is the party that insisted linking air agreements to political talks in Brussels. You can simply Google that. It is certain that JU is suffering because of it, but it's Kosovo's population that is suffering more - they have much less access to real competition and pay very high fares.
you can't protect evel intentions by referring to a treaty or law as those should serve mutual interest. Neither your economy nor aviation has enough weight to have geopolitical importance in the region. You would be better off to concentrate on your national interests ratherthan spend energy on trying to show everyone how Kosovo or Western Balkans can't live without Serbia. Actually your nonsense policy making in aviation is just motivating kosovars to do even more.
DeleteThat under the big words in reality it's still the nationalist pride that drives everything. Just like with Macedonia and Greece.
ReplyDeleteis Macedonia part of some other Airspace area?
ReplyDeleteYes, Skopje air traffic control manages Macedonian airspace, and only Macedonian airspace.
DeleteMKD and ALB were unable to join this project because of Kosovo.
DeleteIs there any ETA for opening up Syrian upper airspace? The current route via Turkey and Iraq pushed most of transiting flights on the Kangaroo Route to fly over Hungary and Romania instead of Croatia and Serbia.
ReplyDeleteProbably unlikely to be soon, nobody wants another MH17...
DeleteBut Russia and US claim the war is over and ISIL disappeared. MH17 is unlikely to happen once again, as most SAMs cant reach aircraft flying at 35k feet.
DeleteThose SAMs that can reach aircraft flying so high have been since the MH17 shutdown treated similarly to WMDs. Their logistics and whereabouts is strictly controlled on the global level. Never once again a group of drunk Cossacks will be able to possess them.
@ AnonymousMarch 1, 2018 at 12:02 PM
ReplyDeleteif anything is pathetic here it certainly is you. You have no idea what this initiative (which went live last year with two big FRA spaces and merged this Feb) really is and what it means. What is pathetic even more is the fact, that OFFICIAL ICAO designator of Pristina airport is stil LYPR, but some wise guys from Iceland, who was doing the ATC there found a "solution" to the problem which was generated in political circles in Pristina: they gave it Icland's prefix, hence BKPR. Now, if you file flightplan which is going through Serbia and you have there BKPR, it will be rejected, if you file LYPR and you are flying to Pristina, it will be rejected by Kosovo. So take your bullshit somewhere else, someone else has to solve this mess. And regarding SECSI - it was bottom up project, EU just gave the ultimate pan ECAC goal to reduce the delays caused by routing. FRA works just fine. And it has revealed little petty idiotisms from LC carriers - in order to save 2 €, they are capable of creating so stupid FPL, that cause headache to everybody. I presume you are flying for one of them.
First of all, Iceland's ICAO prefix is BI, not BK, which stands for Kosovo. But don't get that small detail get in the way.
DeleteI know you thing it's as easy as changing the destination from BKPR to LYPR. What you have to be aware of is that Serbia published no up-to-date data for PRN airport after 1999, so all the charts don't resemble the actual airport layout or procedures in place. Now, try to convince your average very understanding and very reasonable SAFA inspector you are using a different ICAO code on your flightplan that is on your up-to-date Jeppesen/Lido/Navtech/... charts. Or even worse, try to fly to PRN with SMATSA-created charts, I'm sure it will be a walk in a park. Best and easiest way to lose the AOC in a single flight.
The issue is completely political and it is very sad that SMATSA still issues documents saying PRN is under "temporary control by UNMIK". Seriously? Let's cover our ears and eyes and pretend we live in a different reality.
But I guess Balkan will always be Balkan.
Kapa dole majstore :)
DeleteThis is not by Serbia’s choice but PRN is temporarily under UNMIK jurisdiction
Delete