Mauritius is hosting the fourth Africa Indian Ocean Free Route Airspace Project Management Team (AFI–FRA-PMT) Meeting from 25 to 28 October 2022. The meeting opened, this morning, at the Integrated Customs Clearance Centre in Plaine Magnien, in the presence of the Director of Civil Aviation, Mr Iswarduth Pokhun, and the Chairperson of the AFI–FRA-PMT, Mr Kusuamina Diabasenga.
Around 50 participants from the African International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Contracting States and Aviation stakeholders in Mauritius are participating in the meeting which aims at developing a road map for the implementation of Free Route Airspace (FRA) in the AFI region. It is also an opportunity for countries to better understand the concept of FRA, conduct risk assessment, elaborate Aeronautical Information Publication supplements and Letters of Agreement with adjacent States.
In his address, Director Pokhun indicated that the FRA is a specific airspace within which users may freely plan a route between defined entry, intermediate and exit waypoints, without reference to conventional Air Traffic Service routes. He stated that unlike the conventional system where a pilot must follow a fixed track, the FRA allows a flexible navigation plan where the pilot can choose the fastest route in view to reduce fuel consumption and environmental harms.
The objective of the FRA, he added, is to shorten the distance between entry and exit waypoints within a Flight Information Region to help aircraft companies in reducing fuel consumption and carbon emission.
Mr Pokhun recalled that since 2018 the ICAO encourages AFI States having the potential to develop and implement free routing, to incorporate the FRA concept in their national airspace.
Mauritius, he informed, was selected among six other East African States to implement FRA and thus became the first African country to implement the FRA project in parts of its Flight Information Region.
For his part, Mr Kusuamina Diabasenga indicated that the FRA helps airlines to save fuel, identify optimal routes which are more sustainable and protect the environment. The meeting, he underlined, will enable stakeholders from aviation to develop a roadmap with the aim to find ways and routes which are direct, less time consuming and more cost effective to airlines.
“Mauritius has been exemplary in establishing free routes and we are hopeful to see new opportunities for the AFI region as regards FRA”, he said.
