New navigation system soon at Chennai airport

At a time when airlines and airports have started to feel the impact of economic slowdown, AAI has decided to tweak air traffic control procedures to cut down air traffic congestion and avoid delays in landing of aircraft at Chennai airport. The airport will introduce Performance Based Navigation (PBN) procedure and upgrade from the existing system (RNAV 10) to a new system (RNAV 5 or 1) that specify lateral separation among aircraft, in six months. The new navigation procedure is already in place at three airports - Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad. Under the new system, pilots would be provided pre-determined arrival routes into an airport. It helps them to fly in without the aid of air traffic controllers and also learn about the air traffic density around an airport. The most sophisticated RNAV 1 reduces space between aircraft while approaching the runway for landing. This helps better use of airspace, allows airlines to cut down on fuel consumption and to cut down on flight delays. The move is also aimed at eliminating disparity in technology between the airport and airlines. “When the new system is in place, aircraft equipped with special navigation equipment can fly without ground support from the air traffic controllers while approaching the airport for landing,” said a senior official. At present, aircraft flying into the airport are guided by airtraffic controllers. This consumes an airline more fuel because air traffic controllers often manouvre approaching aircraft away from its path to manage congestion. A senior AAI official said that the airport would specify RNAV routes in terms of latitudes and longitudes, publish these standard arrival routes for airlines and also tighten procedures for approach for landing in consultation with the airlines. AAI will hold a meeting with airline operators to discuss implementation of the performance-based navigational procedure in a couple of days. Jet Airways recently got approval to use RNAV 1, the system for all aircraft in its fleet. The navigational method would help “enhance operational efficiency,” said a Jet Airways official. However, such airlines face a drawback while using Chennai airport. “Chennai airport is considered a high-cost one in terms of usage of fuel because of non-availability of sophisticated navigational procedure and poor design of taxiways. Aircraft capable of high accuracy in navigation have to switch to traditional air traffic control aided approach and waste fuel while maintaining more space while flying in to land. This scenario will change soon,” said a AAI official.