Controlled Approach.

The article reports that Australian airports will test new clearance procedures for safer, efficient operations as of March 2004. A six-month trial of a busy airport's arrival queue can be will begin in Sydney and Melbourne next month when Airbus A330s and Boeing 747-400s from the Qantas fleet will be given electronic clearance instructions that they will follow from the beginning of their 140-mi. The trial has multiple goals, increase operational safety and efficiency while cutting fuel burn and emissions by allowing an airport's tower to control descents. Boeing Air Traffic Management's President John Hayhurst noted that because Airservices Australia's jurisdiction stretches from the South Pole across Australia and out into most of the Indian Ocean, it manages about 11 percent of the world's airspace.