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Foreword

　

To accommodate future growth in air transportation, overcome the limitations of conventional ground-based navigation and the current Air Traffic Control systems, promote the safety and efficiency of flights, and improve the quality and efficiency of the Air Traffic Services, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has recommended use of new satellite and digital technologies and use of advanced technical and new Air Traffic Procedures for Communications, Navigation, and Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM).

　

Facing the challenge of global growth in air transport and the changing aviation environment, the Asia Pacific countries have invested heavily to build new aerodromes, implement advanced air traffic control systems, and develop satellite navigation and digital communication techniques. The ICAO CNS/ATM plan has served to speed up the upgrade and replacement of the ATM systems in the Asia Pacific region.

　

The Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) is located in the middle of the Southeast Asia airway system. From the Taipei FIR, Northeast-bound routes lead to Japan, Korea, and continental North America; Southwest-bound routes lead to Hong Kong, Macau, Indo-China, central Asia, and Europe; Southbound airways lead to the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand. One of the busiest airways, Airway A1, passes through the Taipei FIR and connects the large metropolitan cities of Tokyo, Taipei, Hong Kong, and Bangkok. The economy of mainland China and the demand for air transportation are growing rapidly, thus increasing the importance of Airway A470 connecting Shanghai, Fuzhou, Shantou, and Hong Kong: this airway exerts a large influence on Airway A1 since they are parallel and in close proximity to each other. The air traffic on Airway B576, connecting the Taipei FIR and the Incheon FIR, has also been growing steadily, and this has encroached on the primacy of Airway A1, making the two airways nearly equal in traffic. The planned direct air link between Taiwan and mainland China was inaugurated in July 2008 and has significantly changed the air traffic flow in Taipei FIR; scheduled flight service between Taiwan and mainland China is planned to begin in August 2009.

　

To cope with these new changes to the flight environment, the Republic of China (ROC) Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) categorized Taipei FIR Airspace in 2001 in accordance with ICAO’s Airspace Categorization Plan, and adjusted the airway structures to harmonize with the South China Sea airway structure. The CAA restructured two of the major airways connected to the Asia Pacific trunk route and instituted Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum (RVSM) operations to increase airspace capacity. The CAA negotiated with the Hong Kong and Fukuoka FIRs to change parallel Airways A1 and M750 to become one-way airways. This change promoted the efficiency and safety of flights on the Asia Pacific Trunk. These flight environment changes set the fundamental structure of the ICAO-recommended future CNS/ATM plan.

　

The CAA is following this ICAO-recommended CNS/ATM plan to establish the CNS/ATM plan for the Taipei FIR, and is actively participating in the Area Satellite Navigation Cooperation team, named the “Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Implementation Team (GIT)”, which is developing the APEC GNSS Testbed project. In addition, the CAA is maintaining contact with Japan regarding the MTSAT Satellite-based Augmentation System (MSAS) project.

　

The CAA is working to promote Taiwan as an international aviation global operations and logistics center. This will require solving aerodrome capacity and high density airspace utilization problems before saturation is reached, and will require providing advanced air traffic services (ATS). It will also require assisting the airlines in reducing their operating costs. If this is not done, the Taipei FIR ATS system capacity and capability will become less able to meet future demands, thus reducing the interest of foreign airlines to plan and establish a hub or center in this area.

 

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