Project Goal
In order to accelerate the implementation of Performance Based Navigation (PBN), thereby realizing the significant safety, access, efficiency, and reduced environmental impact benefits of PBN, a group of Civil Aviation Administrations in the Asia-Pacific Region, including the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) as the host State, with the assistance of ICAO, established the Flight Procedure Programme (FPP) in 2010. The FPP has been extended through December 2017. As endorsed by the FPP Steering Committee , it is going to be extended into its Phase III covering 2018-2020.
The objective of this programme, funded by the active participating States/Administrations of Australia, China (People's Republic of, Hong Kong SAR, and Macao SAR), France (French Polynesia), Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand and co-located with the ICAO APAC Regional Sub-Office in Beijing, is to assist States to develop sustainable capability in the instrument flight procedure (IFP) domain so as to meet their commitments under Assembly Resolution A36-23 for performance-based navigation (PBN) implementation and their obligations for the quality of their IFPs which was reinforced in Assembly Resolution A37-11. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Fiji, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Tonga and Viet Nam participate in the programme as user, not contributor, States.
Project Achievements
From 2010 to 2017, the FPP has delivered 73 Flight Procedure and PBN related courses and workshops for 1656 participants from 26 States/Administration in APAC Region. These trainings included Basic PANS OPS Training, PBN Procedure Design, Refresher Procedure Design Training, Procedure Design Quality Assurance and Flight Validation for Pilot Training. Besides these courses and workshops, the FPP also provided states with on-job training, flight procedure validation, consultation service and procedure design support.
FPP continues to assist in flight procedure training, validation and implementation, to APAC FPP Member States in 2017. As of Oct.18, 2017, five (5) training courses with 94 participants from 13 States/Administrations have been delivered in China in support of the implementation of the Steering Committee's priorities. The courses conducted were the basic 'ICAO Procedures for Air Navigation Services — Aircraft Operations (PANS-OPS)' Initial Course for Procedure Designers; the PBN Procedure Design Course (twice); the PBN Flight Procedure Refresher Training Course and Flight Procedure Quality Assurance Course. Among them, it was the first time for FPP to deliver Quality Assurance course. FPP in-house instructors with the support from external capacity developed this Course. The FPP also provided consulting service to the Indonesia ILS CAT E project and assisted VAAH prelim study project.
Project in the Future
ICAO APAC FPP is preparing to transit to its Phase III from the second half of 2017 by enhancing internal process, expanding value creation and increasing public visibility. Comparing to its Phase 2, the FPP is going to provide more advanced courses to accommodate the requirements of states, including Helicopter Point in Space, RNP AR Procedure Design, RNP/RNAV to xLS Procedure Design and other new procedure training to follow up ICAO amendments. The FPP would also deliver new training on regulatory oversight of the procedure design service provision including the approval process for the flight instrument procedures to facilitate the Flight Procedure Approval. Besides training, the FPP would give more emphasis on the PBN implementation support in terms of procedure design. To approach its target of "a centre of excellence" in the field of flight procedure design, the FPP is now working together with ICAO, host state and other member states on selecting best experts in the field from CAAs as the FPP procedure design instructor/designer in Phase III.
