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Christchurch

Christchurch (ICAO: NZCH; IATA: CHC) is New Zealand's second largest airport and the primary arrival point for air travellers visiting the South Island. It is also the main forward base of operations for the flight programme to McMurdo Sound in Antarctica.

It has three runways: runway 02/20, a parallel grass runway 02/20 Grass, and the cross runway 11/29. As in real life, runway 02/20 receives the vast majority of traffic in the online world. Runway 11/29 is not used in heavy traffic situations due to a significant misalignment of that runway between the FS9 and FSX sceneries.

Arrivals

Runways 02 and 20 are equipped with ILS and all of the NZCH arrival procedures feed into these approaches. All STARs are now RNAV only. Pilots unable to fly the RNAV arrivals should indicate this in their flight plan, and inform controllers on initial contact in order to receive vectors to the ILS approach.

Queensland

Flights from Queensland (eg: Brisbane, Gold Coast, Cairns) can expect to be assigned one of the BELEE arrivals depending on the active runway.

• Queensland → Runway 02:
  BELEE FIVE ALFA KABKA TRANSITION (KABKA.BELEE5A)
• Queensland → Runway 20:
  BELEE FIVE BRAVO KABKA TRANSITION (KABKA.BELEE5B)

New South Wales/ACT

Flights from New South Wales or ACT (eg: Sydney, Newcastle, Canberra) can expect to be assigned one of the BELEE arrivals depending on the active runway.

• New South Wales/ACT → Runway 02:
  BELEE FIVE ALFA VANDA TRANSITION (VANDA.BELEE5A)
• New South Wales/ACT → Runway 20:
  BELEE FIVE BRAVO VANDA TRANSITION (VANDA.BELEE5B)

All of these arrivals cross over the Southern Alps, the most mountainous section of the entire Oceania region, and there are a series of descent steps specified as part of the arrivals (see the charts above). Aircraft on these arrivals should descend to the ATC cleared level via the published steps.

Departures

New South Wales / ACT

Flights departing Christchurch for New South Wales or ACT (eg: Sydney, Newcastle, Canberra) can expect to be assigned one of the following departures depending on the active runway.

• Runway 02 → New South Wales / ACT:
  BAVEM SIX PAPA VANDA TRANSITION (BAVEM6P.VANDA)
• Runway 20 → New South Wales / ACT:
  KADET SIX QUEBEC VANDA TRANSITION (KADET6Q.VANDA)