Contributor - Accidents and Regulations

Gordon Gilbert

Flights between the southern part of the U.S. East Coast and major international airports in Florida and the Caribbean are said to be more direct, more efficient, and safer since the FAA implemented 55 new performance-based navigation (PBN) routes on November 8.&nbsp;

 


Satellite-equipped aircraft now can fly new routes that begin at the North Carolina/South Carolina border and flow south toward Florida and the Caribbean. The new routes will augment the existing structure of conventional jet routes. The agency also updated 11 existing PBN routes.

 


The agency also is designing high-altitude PBN routes from the Northeast to join the new routes that began this month. “When the new route structure is completed, equipped aircraft will seamlessly fly on satellite-based routes along the East Coast to South Florida and the Caribbean,” said Dan Elwell, acting FAA Administrator.&nbsp;&nbsp;

 


This project is part of <a href="https://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsId=23274">the FAA’s South-Central Florida Metroplex initiative</a>. The Metroplex team designed the new routes, 39 of which are over water and 16 are over land. This brings the total number of PBN routes over the U.S. to 316.

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