The following discussion took place at an open meeting of the Technical Committee, held at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London on 20 January 1971 with Mr. H. E. Smith in the Chair, the introductory discussion paper being presented by Mr. W. P. Robinson, Senior Navigation Superintendent of B.O.A.C.

The interest in area navigation has been stimulated by the knowledge that in many areas of the world air traffic density is expected to exceed the capacity of the existing A.T.C. system in the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, it is important to realize that air traffic delays often result from a lack of airport capacity rather than deficiencies in the air traffic services. Airport capacity is a subject in itself; it is our task to examine how we can improve the present A.T.C. system by the use of area navigation.