Jeppesen on Thursday announced sweeping changes to how it determines and displays aerodrome operating minimums (AOMs), as well as the profile views of non-precision approaches, on airway manual instrument charts. The changes are detailed in Jeppesen’s bulletin 15-A, although no implementation date has yet been announced. The new system will emphasize constant descent final approach flight techniques for vertically guided non-precision approaches in support of stabilized approaches.
In recognition of ongoing international efforts to harmonize AOMs around the world, Jeppesen’s new policy will be based primarily upon ICAO Doc 9365 air weather operations manual that is nearly identical to the guidance provided in EU-Ops and EASA Air Ops. The new Jeppesen AOM concept will apply state-published visibilities and, if necessary, compare them to the ICAO-based values. When available, state AOMs will always be depicted, although state AOMs might be supplemented by higher ICAO AOM values and noted accordingly. In the case where a state does not provide any AOMs, the Jeppesen standard AOMs will be used to derive visibility values. In some cases, available state AOMs may be lower than ICAO AOMs, or vice versa. In these cases the differences will be noted.