Amendment of Jet Routes and Domestic Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range (VOR) Federal Airways and Revocation of VOR Federal Airway; Eastern United States

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Federal Aviation Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>14 CFR Part 71</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. FAA-2023-2269; Airspace Docket No. 23-ASO-4]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2120-AA66</RIN> <SUBJECT>Amendment of Jet Routes and Domestic Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range (VOR) Federal Airways and Revocation of VOR Federal Airway; Eastern United States</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> This action amends Jet Routes J-6, J-14, J-66, J-101, J-131, and J-180; amends Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range (VOR) Federal Airways V-54, V-74, V-124, V-305, V-532, and V-573; and revokes VOR Federal Airway V-534 in the eastern United States. These actions support the Little Rock, AR (LIT), VOR/Tactical Air Navigation (VORTAC) relocation project. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Effective date 0901 UTC, November 27, 2025. The Director of the Federal Register approves this incorporation by reference action under 1 CFR part 51, subject to the annual revision of FAA Order JO 7400.11 and publication of conforming amendments. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> A copy of the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), all comments received, this final rule, and all background material may be viewed online at <E T="03">www.regulations.gov</E> using the FAA Docket number. Electronic retrieval help and guidelines are available on the website. It is available 24 hours each day, 365 days each year. FAA Order JO 7400.11J, Airspace Designations and Reporting Points, and subsequent amendments can be viewed online at <E T="03">www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/.</E> You may also contact the Rules and Regulations Group, Policy Directorate, Federal Aviation Administration, 600 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20597; telephone: (202) 267-8783. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Brian Vidis, Rules and Regulations Group, Policy Directorate, Federal Aviation Administration, 600 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20597; telephone: (202) 267-8783. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Authority for This Rulemaking</HD> The FAA's authority to issue rules regarding aviation safety is found in Title 49 of the United States Code. Subtitle I, Section 106 describes the authority of the FAA Administrator. Subtitle VII, Aviation Programs, describes in more detail the scope of the agency's authority. This rulemaking is promulgated under the authority described in Subtitle VII, Part A, Subpart I, Section 40103. Under that section, the FAA is charged with prescribing regulations to assign the use of the airspace necessary to ensure the safety of aircraft and the efficient use of airspace. This regulation is within the scope of that authority as it modifies the Air Traffic Service (ATS) route structure as necessary to preserve the safe and efficient flow of air traffic within the National Airspace System. <HD SOURCE="HD1">History</HD> The FAA published a NPRM for Docket No. FAA 2023-2269 in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> (88 FR 85133; December 7, 2023), proposing to amend six Jet routes; amend six VOR Federal airways; and revoke one VOR Federal airway in the eastern United States. Interested parties were invited to participate in this rulemaking effort by submitting written comments on the proposal to the FAA. No comments were received. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Differences From the NPRM</HD> The NPRM published for Docket No. FAA 2023-2269 in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> (88 FR 85113; December 7, 2023) contained a typographical error in the title and summary section. The title and summary section stated that the NPRM was proposing to revoke one Jet route. This should have stated that it was proposing to revoke one VOR Federal Airway. The Proposal section and regulatory text correctly described revocation of VOR Federal Airway V-534 as intended. Subsequent publication of the NPRM, the FAA decided to remove Jet Route J-180 from this docket and incorporate it into Docket No. FAA 2024-2226. The final rule for Docket No. FAA 2024-2226 was published in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> (90 FR 14199; March 31, 2025) to streamline the publication of final rules addressing all ATS routes affected by the planned decommissioning of the VOR portion of the Sawmill, LA (SWB), VOR/DME. Also, subsequent publication of the NPRM, the FAA identified that VOR Federal Airway V-573 was described as extending between the Will Rogers, OK (IRW), VORTAC and the Little Rock, AR (LIT), VORTAC in error. Prior to this final rule, V-573 extended between the Will Rogers, OK (IRW), VORTAC and the Bonham, TX (BYP), VORTAC; and between the Texarkana, AR (TXK), VORTAC and the Little Rock, AR (LIT), VORTAC. The FAA identified that VOR Federal Airway V-54 was described as extending between the Waco, TX (ACT), VORTAC and the Little Rock, AR (LIT), VORTAC; and between the Sandhills, NC (SDZ), VORTAC and the Kinston, NC (ISO), VORTAC in error. Prior to this final rule, V-54 extended between the Waco, TX (ACT), VORTAC and the Cedar Creek, TX (CQY), VORTAC; between the Texarkana, AR (TXK), VORTAC and the Little Rock, AR (LIT), VORTAC; and between the Sandhills, NC (SDZ), VORTAC and the Kinston, NC (ISO), VORTAC. Additionally, the FAA incorrectly identified that MUFRE, AR, Fix was added to VOR Federal Airway V-54. The MUFRE Fix is in the description of V-54 and this action amends the radial of the Little Rock VORTAC that defines it. The FAA identified that VOR Federal Airway V-74 was described as extending between the Garden City, KS (GCK), VORTAC, and the Magnolia, MS (MHZ), VORTAC in error. Prior to this final rule, V-74 extended between the Garden City, KS (GCK), VORTAC and the Dodge City, KS (DDC), VORTAC; and between the Pioneer, OK (PER), VORTAC and the Magnolia, MS (MHZ), VORTAC. The FAA identified that in the description of Jet Route J-131 the radials identifying the RUSLR, MO, Fix were listed in error, and in the description of VOR Federal Airway V-305 the radials identifying the UKORE, AR, Fix were listed in error. The radials listed defined the location of each Fix but did not identify the radials that define the path of each airway as required. In Jet Route J-131, the route segment between the Little Rock, AR (LIT), VORTAC and the Pocket City, IN (PXV), VORTAC should be described as the intersection of the Little Rock 049° and the Pocket City, IN, 229° radials. In VOR Federal Airway V-305, the route segment between the Little Rock VORTAC and the Walnut Ridge, AR (ARG), VORTAC should be described as the intersection of the Little Rock 039° and Walnut Ridge, AR, 215° radials. This final rule corrects these errors. The FAA reviewed the airway descriptions contained in the in the proposed regulatory text of the NPRM and identified a pre-existing error in the V-532 description. The description is missing the Wichita, KS, VORTAC. When the airway was established in 1982 (47 FR 44717), it contained a segment that extended between the Pioneer, OK, VORTAC through the Wichita, KS, VORTAC and the intersection of the Wichita VORTAC 356° and Salina, KS, VORTAC 168° radials (STONS Fix). In 1983, the FAA relocated the Wichita VORTAC six nautical miles west from its existing location and published a final rule (48 FR 31191) to adjust the Wichita VORTAC radial that made up the STONS Fix. In that rule, the FAA inadvertently removed the Wichita VORTAC from the V-532 description when it amended the airway by deleting the words “Wichita, KS; INT Wichita 356° and Salina, KS, 168° radials” and substituting the words “INT Wichita, KS, 004° and Salina, KS, VORTAC 168° radials”. The FAA published a final rule correction (48 FR 35366) that same year which corrected the Wichita VORTAC radial that made up the STONS Fix from the Wichita, KS, 004° radial to the Wichita, KS, 014° radial, but retained the inadvertent removal of the V-532 Wichita VORTAC route point between the Pioneer VORTAC and the STONS Fix route points. This action corrects the V-532 airway description error from 1983 by re-inserting the Wichita, KS, VORTAC route point in the V-532 description between the Pioneer, OK, VORTAC and the intersection of the Wichita VORTAC 014° and Salina, KS, VORTAC 168° radials (STONS Fix) route points. Additionally, this action corrects a typographic error in the V-532 airway description to reflect the “Fort Smith” route point as the “Fort Smith, AR” route point. Additionally, subsequent to the NPRM, the FAA published a final rule for Docket No. FAA-2024-1048 in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> (89 FR 81339; October 8, 2024), amending Jet Route J-101 by removing the route segments between the Spinner, IL, VORTAC and the Northbrook, IL, VOR/DME. That airway amendment, effective December 26, 2024, is included in this rule. Finally, minor editorial corrections to the airway descriptions are made to comply with ATS route formatting requirements. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Incorporation by Reference</HD> Jet Routes are published in paragraph 2004 and Domestic VOR Federal Airways are published in paragraph 6010(a) of FAA Order JO 7400.11, Airspace Designations and Reporting Points, which is incorporated by reference in 14 CFR 71.1 on an annual basis. This document amends the current version of that order, FAA Order JO 7400.11J, dated July 31, 2024, and effective September 15, 2024. These amendments will be published in the next update to FAA Order JO 7400.11. FAA Order JO 7400.11J, which lists Class A, B, C, D, and E airspace areas, air traffic service routes, and reporting points, is publicly available as listed in the <E T="02">ADDRESSES</E> section of this document. <HD SOURCE="HD1">The Rule</HD> This action amends 14 CFR part 71 by amendi ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 25k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━