Aeronautical Information Management

The AIP manual for Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) contains rules and procedures relevant to IFR operations within the airspace managed by Skyguide. The AIP lists all IFR aerodromes in Switzerland, along with their Standard Instrument Departure/Standard Terminal Approach Route (SID/STAR) procedures. The manual complies with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Annex 15 rules for such publications. AIM services publish changes to the AIP manual every 28 days. It is only available electronically via our briefing service
www.skybriefing.com .

On the 1st December 2022 Skyguide introduces a permanently available Free Route Airspace (FRA) within the entire lateral limits of its AoR above FL195. This FRA will be named LSASFRA within the various Aeronautical Information Publications (AIP) and the Eurocontrol Route Availability Document (RAD).

Additional information and a Map including the LSASFRA details can be found on skybriefing.

Changes to aeronautical data will be published via the standard AIRAC process in the AlPs of Switzerland, Austria, France, Germany and Italy.

All Route Availability Document (RAD) changes will be published as per the standard update process on the Eurocontrol NM RAD homepage

The AIM Operations service manages aviation documents from over 160 countries around the world.

The continuous updating and quality control of these publications form the basis for comprehensive information and advisory tasks.

Official and updated documents are indispensable for a flight to be safe and successful.

A screening process allows aviation manuals to be filtered and read out according to customer-specific criteria. The resultant data sets are made available to customers electronically.

Providers of flight planning software and software developers interested in this screening service may contact our commercial services for more information.

AIC is a document containing information that does not qualify for the publication of a NOTAM or for inclusion in the AIP, but rather relates to flight safety, air navigation, technical, administrative or legislative matters (ICAO Annex 15).

Skyguide maintains two series for the AIC. Information that needs to be distributed internationally are in AIC Series A, and information of national relevance is distributed in AIC Series B.

The AIC series are available for download here.

The VFR Manual contains all the rules relevant to operations under VFR. It also contains an aerodrome section that lists most of the VFR aerodromes in Switzerland, along with the Area charts and Visual Approach charts for each aerodrome.

The VFR manual is available in paper form. An electronic version is also available on our briefing platform www.skybriefing.com.

For software developers who wish to integrate the VFR Manual in their applications, a special license agreement is available. Please contact our commercial services.

• ICAO Chart Switzerland 1 : 500 000
  The ICAO chart provides aeronautical information that is useful for VFR pilots.
• Glider Chart Switzerland 1 : 300 000
  The Glider Chart shows aeronautical information that is useful to glider pilots
• Area Chart for Geneva and Zurich 1: 250 000
  Area Charts for the terminal areas for the Geneva and Zurich airports are available.
• En-Route Chart (ERC) lower and upper for Switzerland
  The En-Route Charts showing the ATS routes for the lower and upper airways can be found on skybriefing.com in the Publications section.

The DABS is an official Swiss aeronautical publication that provides the current airspace status at the time of retrieval, as information source for VFR aviation and in accordance with the NOTAM publications.
NOTAM affecting the entire Swiss territory or parts thereof such as military (MIL) night flights are listed in the text area of the DABS only.

Contents of DABS: dangers, restrictions and changes of airspace within Swiss territory, including activations of TEMPO CTR and TMA and military firings above 250 m/AGL.

The DABS chart for the current day is updated every day regardless of changes at:

• 09:00 LT
• 13:00 LT
• 16:00 LT

The DABS chart for the following day is published at 16:00 LT. DABS updates contain reductions or cancellations of activities, if reported. The extension of an existing activity or the publication of new area is generally not possible with two exceptions:

• The 16:00 LT chart may contain MIL night flights and RPAS (Remotely piloted aircraft systems) flight for the current night
• For urgent and unexpected restricted areas established by the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA)

The appropriate NOTAM area constantly updated. Therefore, the information status of DABS and the corresponding NOTAM is not identical anymore. Chart scale 1:1’250’000, in format A4.

The DABS is published by Skyguide AIM Services, section KOSIF (coordination office for firings and safety of air navigation).

Please contact the flight information service (FIC) or KOSIF (telephone number +41 44 813 31 10) for the latest information.

Not published in the DABS are airport information, NOTAM regarding procedure changes, information regarding obstacles and navigation aids, etc., as well as airspaces as published in the AIP (including HX airspaces) and R-Areas with special rules for gliders. For detailed information refer to the original NOTAM.

In accordance with ICAO regulations, all navigation warnings will also be promulgated by NOTAM. This allows a complete briefing regarding dangers, limitations and changes in Swiss airspace either by DABS or by NOTAM collection.

The DABS publication can be accessed on www.skybriefing.com

For detailed information always refer to the NOTAM.

Skybriefing provides functionality for flight preparation anywhere, at any time via www.skybriefing.com. It is the official pre-flight preparation service approved by the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA).

Skybriefing integrates flight plan functions, meteorological information and NOTAM information in a single application. This enables the compilation, management and submission of flight plans and the creation of Pre-flight Information Bulletins (PIB) with meteorological and NOTAM information specifically tailored to the flight plan.

After registration on www.skybriefing.com, the application can be accessed from any internet-connected terminal, or from any self-briefing station available at aerodromes in Switzerland. The service is available 24/7 and 365 days a year including an expert support service for skybriefing and enquiries related to flight plans or NOTAM. It can be reached by telephone on +41 43 931 61 61 or by e-mail at helpdesk@skybriefing.com.

AIM Operations have a worldwide NOTAM database with the option of retrieving NOTAM information individually in line with customer requirements.

The NOTAM Database Service provides an up-to-date NOTAM database that can be accessed via system interfaces. In this way, NOTAMs can be imported easily into flight planning applications.

The NOTAM Database Service offers the following functions:

• Collection of worldwide standard ICAO NOTAMs and diverse regional additional non-ICAO standard messages
• Interface to NOTAM database via structured XML messages and web service technology
• Customer specific tailoring of NOTAM scope
• Active management of the NOTAM series in collaboration with the international NOF

Providers of flight planning software and software developers interested in integrating NOTAM may contact our commercial services for more information.

Skyguide AIM is the authoritative source for aeronautical data in Switzerland. While the data is published in the AIP or VFR Manual, it can also be obtained in AIXM 5.1 or other formats on request.

Information on aeronautical obstacles can be found via the WEGOM application (WEb-Gis Obstacle Map).

Requests for modification of publication must be submitted to the LIFS service of FOCA according to the Originator Deadlines (PDF).