What is the primary purpose of the Minimum Enroute Altitude (MEA)?

The primary purpose of the Minimum Enroute Altitude (MEA) is to ensure both signal coverage and obstacle clearance throughout the enroute portion of a flight. Establishing a safe altitude is crucial for maintaining air safety and ensuring that pilots receive navigational signals from ground-based facilities, which is essential for accurate position reporting and navigation.

The MEA allows pilots to navigate safely by providing a guaranteed clearance above terrain and obstacles, thus avoiding any risk of collision. Additionally, it ensures that pilots remain within the range of navigational aids to support their flight path. This altitude is particularly important in mountainous regions or areas with congested air traffic, where the risk of running into obstacles is greater.

While the other aspects mentioned, such as flight efficiency, fuel economy, and weather avoidance, can play a role in flight planning, they are not the primary focus of the MEA. The MEA takes precedence in ensuring safety by addressing both the need to clear terrain and obstacles and the requirement for navigation signal reception. This fundamental focus underlines the importance of the MEA in flight operations.