Iata promotes satellite navigation for African airports

ALAN PEAT
IN THE week before Christmas, a technical team from the International Air Transport Association (Iata) embarked on a six-day roadshow to promote the use of the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) for flight guidance in eight African countries. The GNSS procedures, Iata told FTW, make use of satellite technology to guide aircraft during flight – and are designed to enhance safety, reduce costs and improve efficiency. The exercise – part of a five-year project undertaken by Iata in 2001 to implement the use of GNSS globally – involves 13 airports across southern Africa. They are: Livingstone and Lusaka in Zambia; Blantyre and Lilongwe in Malawi; Dar es Salaam and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania; Mahe in the Seychelles; Windhoek in Namibia; Maun and Gaborone in Botswana; Entebbe in Uganda; and Kinshasa and Lubumbashi in the DRC. According to the association, traditional ground-based navigation systems are limited by topography, weather, equipment serviceability and power supply – and are also expensive to install and maintain. GNSS is not constrained by any of these factors. It uses global positioning system (GPS) technology to provide accurate guidance in remote and oceanic areas where ground-based navigation systems are costly or impractical to install.