How would you like your AIP, electronic or digital?

Much confusion exists on the various flavours of Aeronautical Information Publications. This article aims at clarifying the topic.

By Benoit Maisonny, Nilacandi Director and Senior AIM Consultant

Paper AIP

Once upon a time, more precisely in 1960, ICAO introduced the concept of AIP, a compendium of permanent aeronautical information, organised in 7 parts, as defined by Annex 15 Amendment 8. For the first time, States were recommended a standard layout and content for this information. Of course, at that time, it was a paper document. There was a lot of repetition and clutter in the old structure. Therefore, the 3-parts AIP introduced by ICAO in 1994 was most welcome. Some AIS departments loved the old 7-parts AIP so much that they kept it until the early years of the 21st century.

What are ICAO Annex 15 requirements when it comes to paper AIP presentation and distribution?

As we can see, there are not many requirements specific to eAIP in Annex 15 and PANS-AIM. All we can conclude is that an eAIP according to ICAO is an AIP that can be read on screen. An AIP document distributed in PDF format is compliant. More compliance details are expected in the future version of ICAO Doc 8126, expected in 2021.

In its extensive eAIP documentation, Eurocontrol proposed 2 clear definitions:

• Electronic AIP: an AIP designed for the screen, with interactive, modern functionality.

• Digital AIP: is an AIP converted to PDF or other common format suitable for on-screen display but not specially designed for it.

Features of the Eurocontrol eAIP

The Eurocontrol eAIP brings a number of advantages compared to a PDF AIP:

We can optionally display the previous revision of the text beside the new one ( with strike-through styling) by ticking the checkbox on the upper-right corner. We also have a precise and exhaustive list of changes in the AMDT tab on the left side.

Here's a short list of other useful features, among others:

• The table of contents is always visible and includes hyperlinks, making it easy to navigate within the AIP

• The checklists of AIP SUP and of AIC are just one click away and have links to the documents

• Supplements offer a link to the supplemented AIP sections

• Readers can search for text in the AIP: a tiny Google for AIP, SUP and AIC content

The latest version is the Eurocontrol eAIP 2.1, released in 2012. Until version 2.0, the specification was coming with extensive documentation and a toolbox. The eAIP toolbox is a set of Open Source software (free to use and modify, for fun and profit) for computer enthusiasts and of course the industry. This software can validate an eAIP document against a set of standard rules, publish it in HTML (the eAIP Web site) and PDF (for printing). While reading PANS-AIM, one can feel the scent of the Eurocontrol eAIP in between the lines. Well, at least I do. ☺

It is anticipated that the next release of ICAO Document 8126 describes the functionality of the Eurocontrol eAIP as a means of compliance to the concept of ICAO eAIP.

Digital AIP

Annex 15 and PANS-AIM make no reference whatsoever to a digital AIP, but the terms have been used together in some ICAO documents, notably in AIS to AIM transition tables, where digital AIP is defined as an "electronic AIP generated from a digital database of aeronautical information". As we have seen, Annex 15 does not require an electronic AIP to be generated from a database. But in practice, it is highly recommended, and even for a paper AIP. Generating an AIP from an AIS database allows 50% to 90% of the AIP to be generated automatically, depending on the number of aerodromes and charts published.

Annex 15 and PANS-AIM go further as to let large pans of the AIP omitted, as long as a dataset is provided. Is this the beginning of the end for the AIP? It will shrink as datasets grow.

Our new cloud service, Facilis.aero, can definitely be of help if you are looking for an aeronautical information database and a place where to publish your eAIP and datasets.

Electronic or Digital?

Electronic devices are different from digital ones: electronic devices are based on low voltage, transistors and integrated circuits while digital devices are simply using digits. A digital clock shows the time using digits and is not necessarily electronic even if most are.

What's the difference between an electronic AIP and a digital AIP? From an English point of view, there is none. An electronic document is a digital document and vice versa. When it comes to documents, the semantic difference doesn't matter: we understand digital as "being made of digits", referring to the digits used to encode the document on a computer system.

In fact, the difference between electronic and digital documents depends on conventions. For example, an electronic signature is defined as any kind of signature that can be processed by software, including an image of a hand-drawn signature. Digital signatures is defined by industry players as an electronic signature that uses cryptography to encode a signature. A digital signature is not the image of a drawing but a long number, hence digital. A counter-example is "digitalisation", the process of scanning a paper document to store, read and process it in a computer system. A digital document can just be an electronic image of a paper document.

We humans make our own conventions. Eurocontrol proposed one 15 years ago. ICAO proposed a different one 10 years ago. Let's follow ICAO's guidance. What matters at the end of the day, is that AIP readers get their fresh data as soon as it is published.

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