Once the airspace design is complete, the Airspace Concept has become a comprehensive body of work that needs to be validated and checked. Validation takes place in various phases: the airspace design is usually validated first; once this has been successfully completed then the Instrument Flight Procedures are designed and validated. In fact, during the design phase, many of the iterations can be considered as part of the validation process.
Subject to the individual States' public consultation processes, now that the traffic flows have been agreed within the team, this is the logical time to put the new Airspace Concept out for public review and discussion. This should be done with the assistance of the Environmental Manager and when interacting with the public it is highly recommended that all involved stakeholders attend together: The airport, ATC and the airspace users.
The objectives of validation are:
- Prove the operational validity of the design concept;
- Assess if the design objectives can be achieved by implemention of the concept;
- Identify any potential weaknesses in the design and develop appropriate mitigations;
- Build evidence that the design is safe - this will form part of the Safety Assessment.
