France’s air-navigation service provider DSNA has issued a notice on its SOFIA-Briefing portal advising pilots and flight-dispatch teams of planned network maintenance windows. Access to NOTAMs, SNOWTAMs and online flight-plan filing will be unavailable on 20 October (21:00–21:30 UTC), 21 October (04:00–04:30 UTC and 21:00–23:59 UTC) and 22 October (00:00–00:30 UTC and 03:00–04:30 UTC). During the outages, only IFR flight plans containing the ‘STS’ priority code and filed by telephone with regional BRIA offices will be accepted. VFR pilots and corporate operators must consult alternate briefing channels or defer departures. Airlines with digitally integrated dispatch systems could see automatic filing loops fail, so manual cross-checks are essential. Although each interruption lasts no more than 2.5 hours, they occur in the late-evening and early-morning banks when many long-haul repositioning flights depart French hubs. Euro-charter operators ferrying seasonal workers to North-Africa routes have flagged potential knock-on delays if flight plans cannot be validated in time. DSNA apologises for the inconvenience and says the upgrade will bolster cyber-security ahead of next spring’s busy schedule. Mobility managers should alert travelling executives on private or corporate jets; a failure to file valid flight plans could invalidate insurance coverage. Freight forwarders using ad-hoc cargo flights out of Vatry or Lille-Lesquin may also need to re-slot departures outside maintenance windows.
Source: DSNA – SOFIA-Briefing notice
