FAQs

Airservices is a government owned organisation. We provide safe, secure, efficient and environmentally responsible services to the aviation industry and community. We safely manage 11 per cent of the world’s airspace where there are more than four million aircraft movements carrying more than 160 million passengers annually.

We are responsible for the ‘network in the sky’. 

Airspace Management relies on complex, invisible infrastructure catering to a variety of airspace users, including commercial, military and general aviation.

We provide a range of world-class services that allow safe and equitable access to our skies. Our primary focus is ensuring the safety of air travel - both in the air and on the ground - and providing service outcomes that are matched to the needs of our airline customers while minimising the impact or aircraft operations on the community as much as practicable.

The term ‘flight path’ is used to refer to the mapped three-dimensional corridor where aircraft fly most of the time. Flight paths can be a number of kilometres wide, rather than the single lines depicted on flight charts (maps). Aircraft may fly differently within these corridors for a range of reasons, including aircraft performance (including type, speed and weight), and navigation systems. Aircraft may deviate from flight paths for a range of reasons, including weather and operational requirements. In controlled airspace, this will be at the approval of air traffic control (ATC).

There are a range of regulatory requirements and technical procedures that we must consider and apply when designing flight paths and airspace.  

We comply with international regulations set out by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and national regulations including the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) and the Air Services Act 1995.

We have developed the Flight Path Design Principles to provide a basis for designing and developing the flight paths that we will implement and operate.

Airservices has a range of policies, legislation, standards and guidance that apply to the design of flight paths. These are available in our Flight Path Design Principles.

Responsibility for aviation operations is shared between a range of parties including Airservices, other federal government agencies, airlines and operators, pilots, airports and state and local governments. 

You can read more information about the roles and responsibilities on our Aircraft in Your Neighbourhood website.