EGNOS Flying High at ERA

The European Regions Airline Association (ERA) returned to Barcelona for its 2014 General Assembly, held 30 September to 2 October. At the event, EGNOS – the European space-based augmentation system – highlighted its role in enhancing and expanding regional airline operations in Europe.

The European Regions Airline Association (ERA) returned to Barcelona for its 2014 General Assembly, held 30 September to 2 October. At the event, EGNOS – the European space-based augmentation system – highlighted its role in enhancing and expanding regional airline operations in Europe.

As part of the ERA operations advisory group session, Carmen Aguilera, Aviation Market Development Officer at the European GNSS Agency (GSA), gave a presentation on how the use of space-based navigation, such as EGNOS, can enhance regional operations – particularly for Europe’s more remote areas that lack expensive ground-based systems.

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“More and more airports are implementing EGNOS-enabled LPV (Localiser Performance with Vertical Guidance) approaches – most recently at Gothenburg airport in Sweden,” she said. “Moreover, there are LPV retrofit solutions available in the market for many of the models operated by European regional operators.”

The GSA also highlighted the support it offers to regional airlines and airports to implement EGNOS-based operations. A relevant initiative in this field is the open call for proposals published by the GSA to co-fund EGNOS operational implementation in civil aviation.

The workshop offered an excellent opportunity to discuss specific operator experiences in equipping their fleet with EGNOS capabilities, such as Wideroe, who is currently upgrading an aircraft with GSA support. It also gave the floor to Captain Rice from Aurigny Air Services, who shared his experience in performing an average of nearly 300 monthly LPV approaches to Alderney with a complete fleet of six Trislanders equipped and approved for LPV.

EGNOS for Aviation

EGNOS was prominently on display during the ERA exhibition with a substantial booth. The booth showcased how European space-based augmentation system (SBAS) can provide very clear benefits to the aviation sector, especially for business and helicopter operations whose aircraft’s performance is not specifically catered to by current Air Traffic Management systems.

The EGNOS signal covers the whole of Europe and enables improved flexibility and implementation of advanced arrival, approach and departure procedures. It can improve accessibility by providing lower approach minima at non-ILS (instrument-landing system) equipped runways and improve operational capability by providing a back-up for ILS approaches.

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Other benefits accrue from reduced environmental impacts and costs by enabling more efficient routes, time and fuel savings, and lower CO2 emissions. By augmenting the existing GPS signals, EGNOS offers enhanced vertical precision and integrity ("guaranteed signal"), allowing pilots to rely on it for a safe approach at places or under meteorological conditions that were previously not possible. All that is needed is an on-board EGNOS certified receiver, an adapted approach procedure for the runway end and corresponding flight management system functions. There are no investments and maintenance costs for ground infrastructure required

EGNOS is fully interoperability with other SBAS deployed globally and therefore EGNOS enabled receivers are widely available.

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).

More information:

The European GNSS Agency

EGNOS Portal

EGNOS and Aviation

EGNOS at Gothenburg Airport