Aerodrome Categories

Introduction

In FL3XX, managing aerodrome categories is essential for ensuring smooth flight operations and compliance with airport regulations. This article provides a comprehensive overview of how aerodrome categories work within FL3XX.
It also covers the functionality of category validity tracking, expiration alerts, remarks fields, and how these features help maintain operational accuracy and efficiency. Whether you're a dispatcher, crew member, or operations manager, understanding how to manage and update aerodrome categories is crucial for ensuring timely and compliant operations.

Overview

Aerodrome categories in FL3XX can be set and managed on the Airports page, offering flexibility for operators to assign categories either globally (per AOC) or on a more granular level (per aircraft type). FL3XX provides a variety of aerodrome categories to accommodate different operational requirements and regulatory needs.

Currently, the available categories include:

• A

• B 

• C 

• P – Prohibited 

• NC – Not Categorized

Each category serves to classify airports based on operational limitations and regulatory requirements, ensuring that flight planning and dispatchers have the right information at their disposal. You can set these categories based on the specific Air Operator Certificate (AOC) [1] or assign them per individual Aircraft Type [2], allowing for tailored configurations for different aircraft or operations.

Additionally, you can add remarks for each aerodrome category. These remarks are useful for providing further details or operational notes that can be referenced later. The remarks are visible across various sections, including the Sales page, the Dispatch flight strip, Crew Briefing document and the Mobile apps, ensuring that all relevant parties have access to the most up-to-date information.

Validity Settings

In FL3XX, each aerodrome category has an associated validity period, which helps ensure that the category remains up-to-date and compliant with operational requirements.
FL3XX provides configurable options for managing the validity of aerodrome categories, offering flexibility to adjust and monitor expiration dates for each category.

Default Validity Behavior

By default, FL3XX sets the validity period of aerodrome categories to be infinite unless specified otherwise. This ensures that if no date is set by the user, the category remains valid indefinitely.

Customizing Validity Period

You can customize the validity of aerodrome categories through the following fields:

• Validity From: Defines the starting date of the validity period.

• Validity Until: Defines the end date of the validity period.

These fields can be configured directly on the Airports page for each category, either maintained per AOC or aircraft type. The dates entered will be based on the operator’s time zone, ensuring that the validity period is accurate according to the operator’s location. If no Validity Until date is set, the category will be considered valid indefinitely.

Setting Expiry Date and Notifications

You can set an expiration date for aerodrome categories. Once the expiration date is reached and no action is taken, FL3XX will automatically update the category to NC (Not Categorized). This process ensures that any expired categories are flagged and require review.

To facilitate this process, FL3XX offers the following options:

• Aerodrome Category Validity: This setting allows you to define the default validity period in days. When creating or updating an aerodrome category, this default validity period will be used to automatically populate the Validity From and Validity Until fields. This setting can be adjusted at any time and by default is empty.

• Aero Category Expiry Alerts: FL3XX can be configured to send an email notification before a category expires. You can set how many days in advance an email should be sent before the expiration date. The notification will inform you about the impending expiration and prompt them to take action to renew or update the category.

  The email notification will include the following details:

  • A list of airports, AOCs, and aircraft types with expiring categories

  • The expiration date of the category

  • A reminder to take action to ensure continuity of operations

Configuring Expiry Settings

These settings are accessible via the Settings → General → Configuration section,
where the following options can be configured:

1. Aerodrome Category Validity [1]: You can define the number of days before a category expires, or set it to infinite by keeping it empty.

   

2. Aerodrome Category Alerting Email [2]: This allows you to input multiple email addresses to receive notifications regarding upcoming expirations.

3. Aerodrome Category Alerts Before Expiry [3]: You can specify the number of days before expiration to receive alerts.