The SESAR JU RISE Project Continues to Prove the Benefits of Performance Based Naviation (PBN) Throughout Europe
Ontario, Canada | August 31, 2016– The SESAR JU RISE project continues to prove the benefits of performance based navigation (PBN) throughout Europe. In the latest set of flight trials, DSNA, the civil aviation authority of France, and Air France, Air Corsica and easyJet have assessed the PBN procedures designed for Ajaccio and Nice through a series of demonstration flight trials. The RISE Project, which seeks to improve airport accessibility, enhance safety and reduce environmental impact at airports throughout Europe, is co-financed by SESAR Joint Undertaking and its partners.
DSNA stated, “The trials in Nice and Ajaccio prove that PBN holds the key to improving airport accessibility and enhancing safety in our airspace. In Nice, not only were we able to lower the approach minima nearly 900 feet, we were also able to restrict the flight path in order to provide a fully repeatable path.”
SESAR JU has been working with NAVBLUE, formerly Airbus ProSky, part of “Services by Airbus”, DSNA and Air France, Emirates, EasyJet, Air Corsica to design and test PBN procedures. In Nice and Ajaccio, the procedures designed by DSNA enhance safety by providing a fully managed approach down to the runway threshold. Previously there were only visual prescribed track (VPT) procedures in place at Ajaccio RWY20 and at Nice RWY22. The new approaches will improve airport accessibility by lowering the minima. It could also reduce the noise impact on the city of Ajaccio, compared to the current procedure.
The Nice and Ajaccio flight trials are part of the more than 330 flight trials conducted so far in collaboration with the partner airlines and ANSPs since September 2015 in France, Greece, Cyprus and Portugal. These trials allowed capturing feedback from flight crew and air traffic controllers on the procedures in terms of fly-ability, safety, crew and ATC workload, as well as assess savings in CO2 emissions and fuel consumption reduction.
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