Revised Flight Plan Suffixes Effective September 1

Effective September 1, operators will be required to use a new set of flight plan aircraft equipment suffixes to indicate advanced navigation capabilities. According to an FAA notice published last week, either J, K, L or a newly defined Q is to be used to specify advanced RNAV and RVSM capabilities. Pilots should continue to use a W to indicate RVSM capability only. The revised list also contains significant changes to the definitions of E, F and Q. The FAA notice provides instructions for use of the suffixes on both FAA and ICAO flight plans, although a complete table of the new codes in the notice is for use only in FAA Flight Plan Form 7233-1. Due to publication cycles, the revised suffix list was published in the August 4 edition of the Aeronautical Information Manual, but the FAA cautioned users to continue to use the suffixes defined in the February 17 edition of the AIM until September 1. The agency warned that use of any of the new suffixes before September 1 “will likely result in your flight plan being rejected.”