Overview

The New Zealand Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP) is a set of documents that provide all the operational information required for safe national and international air navigation within New Zealand airspace.

The information provided in the New Zealand AIP consists of four volumes, sectioned into the following three areas:

• General (GEN), contains administrative and explanatory information
• Enroute (ENR), contains information about airspace and its use
• Aerodromes (AD), contains information about aerodromes and their use

The following additional publications, forming part of the Aeronautical Information Package, are also produced:

• AIP Supplements - Contains temporary changes to the information contained in the AIP or information of a short term nature.
• Aeronautical Information Circulars (AIC) - Contains information which does not qualify for inclusion in the AIP or NOTAM but which relates to flight safety, air navigation, technical, administrative or legislative matters.
• Enroute and Area Instrument Charts - Providing charts for IFR flight.
• Visual Navigation and Planning Charts - Providing charts for VFR flight.

All the documents are regularly revised and updated.

The AIP Format

The New Zealand AIP is published in four loose-leaf volumes:

• Volume 1 [Planning] contains all of the General, Enroute and Aerodrome parts including details of International Aerodromes.
• Volumes 2 & 3 [Instrument Flight Rules] are issued as a set and contain the information from the General and Enroute parts that is relevant to IFR operations. They contain details of all New Zealand aerodromes and heliports for which instrument procedures are published. Subscribers to these volumes also receive the Enroute and Area charts.
• Volume 4 [Visual Flight Rules] contains the information from the General and Enroute parts that is relevant to VFR operations. Aerodrome charts and associated VFR procedures are included.

In addition:

• AIP supplements are normally issued as a stapled booklet which is reissued every 28 days. Some Supplements, that concern one subject and will be in effect for a lengthy period, are issued as stand alone booklets (details of these are included in the regular supplement).
• Aeronautical Information Circulars (AIC) are issued as a stapled booklet, normally containing all valid AIC. Subscribers to the AIP  Subscriptions receive AIC as part of their subscription. AIC are issued as required (as a minimum once a year).
• Enroute and Area charts are updated and published twice a year in May and November. Subscribers to Volumes 2 & 3 of the AIP receive these charts as part of their AIP Subscriptions.
• Visual Navigation and Planning charts are reviewed annually and updated and reissued as required. Reissue will depend on the nature and number of changes that have occurred. Due to the unpredictability of changes, an AIP Subscription is not currently available but charts are reviewed annually and issued in November each year.

Publication

Production and publication of the AIP and associated documents is carried out by the AIM section of AeroPATH Ltd under contract to the New Zealand CAA.

The New Zealand AIP is published in paper format and is available for purchase through the AIP Shop. Electronic PDF versions of the current New Zealand AIP are also available at www.aip.net.nz. This web site also provides the current and next effective editions of AIP Supplements and Aeronautical Information Circulars (AIC).

To check the currency of existing documents, refer to the Publication Status checklist page.

Amendments

The documents that make up the New Zealand AIP are regularly updated via amendments to reflect changes in the New Zealand aviation system.

AIP amendments consist of any or all of the following:

• AIP Amendment. One plastic sealed package for each Volume that is subscribed to. ( Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 3 and Vol 4).
• A pink "changes" bulletin. This outlines the changes that are contained in the amendment and is issued in conjunction with the AIP amendment. If there is no AIP amendment there is no changes bulletin.
• The AIP Supplement. An AIP supplement is issued every 28 day cycle.
• Aeronautical Information Circular (AIC). The AIC are generally issued 2-3 times a year and remain current until the next issue.
• IFR Enroute charts. Published twice a year and forms part of the subscription to Vol 2 and Vol 3.

 The key points are:

• Amendments are currently issued every 56 days. This follows the ICAO AIRAC cycle, which is every 28 days but every other cycle is missed out. In certain circumstances an amendment may be issued at an interim 28 day period.
• Amendments are numbered annually starting at 1. For example, the first amendment for 2020 will be numbered 1/2020. 
• Holders of the AIP will only receive amendments if they subscribe to the AIP Subscriptions (search for "AIP subscription" within the AIP shop to purchase a subscription)
• Amendments are dispatched to be with subscribers at least 28 days before they are due to become effective. Thus, if an amendment has an effective date of the 18th July 19 it should be delivered to all subscribers before the 13th of June 19. (In cases of extensive change to airspace or procedures this period is extended to 56 days)
• AIP amendments may not be issued every 56 days. A NOTAM is issued on the effective date of each 28 day AIRAC cycle, stating when the next amendment will be issued.
• The AIP subscription for all volumes includes AIP Supplements and AIC. In addition, subscribers to AIP Volumes 2 & 3 will receive the IFR Enroute charts when they are updated twice yearly.
• No AIP Subscription is currently available for Visual Navigation Charts.

Amending the AIP

Filing Instructions

Each amendment package includes filing instructions that outline which pages of the AIP to remove and which to insert.

For example:

Replacement Pages

These are the replacement pages for those already in the Volume. These should match the filing instructions and are normally supplied in the correct order.
Some Volumes contain coloured pages. Amendments for these are at the end of the amendment package, not in the correct sequence.

Using the filing instructions as a guide - remove the existing pages from the relevant AIP Volume and replace with the new pages.

When you have finished - complete page GEN 0.2 which is a record of the amendments entered into the Volume.

If you are unsure if a page is current - the checklist of pages that exists in each volume (Vol 2 & 3 are treated as one volume) can be used to check the dates to ensure the page is current. The checklist in Vol 1 also contains details of pages in the other volumes.

Note:

• Vol 2 & 3 and 4 contain some pages that also exist in Vol 1. 
• Vol 2 & 3 and Vol 4 also have pages that exist in each other but not in Vol 1.

This ensures that Vol 2 & 3 contains all the required information for IFR flights and Vol 4 contains all the information required for VFR flights

Amendment Problems

Should you have any questions relating to your amendment.  Please contact us.