On the 8th of June at the Katowice Airport located in Pyrzowice the “Airport Breakfast” meeting was held, conducted within the European CaBilAvi project.
The aim of the meeting was to disseminate most recent information and increase awareness on the use of European satellite navigation systems in aviation activities. The “Airport Breakfast” in Pyrzowice was the first from a set of such planned meetings in Europe.Within the scope of the CaBilAvi meeting, funded by the European Commission within the Horizon 2020 Framework, knowledge on E-GNSS (European satellite navigation systems) is shared among amateurs and professionals. Two other project themes are the introduction of new knowledge on GNSS systems to the aviation educational programmes and the implementation of EGNOS procedures’ use in South-East European countries.
The International Katowice Airport located in Pyrzowice has been selected to host the event because of its many years’ experience in operations utilising the LPV procedure, which allows to conduct landings with a higher precision (of machine localisation).
The meeting started with the greeting of guests in a dedicated video recording by Mrs Elżbieta Bieńkowska, the European Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. The Commissioner shortly mentioned the importance of the space sector, including the EGNOS system and its resulting benefits for all Europeans, on the example of aviation. The next presentation was given by Mr Paweł Wojda, the director of the International Katowice Airport located in Pyrzowice. He explained to the participants the airport characteristics and the key development plans for the upcoming years.
The technical issues were presented at the event by the representatives of the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency (PAŻP). Tomasz Woźniak, Director of the GNSS Department at PAŻP presented the Agency’s activities in Poland and introduced projects related to EGNOS, such as EDCN/EDCN Next, HEDGE/HEDGE Next, APV Mielec, SHERPA, FLIPA. Piotr Cześnik, the Main Specialist for Instrumental Flight Procedures and acting Head of the Department of Procedure Design and Aircraft Obstacle Analysis in PAŻP presented issues of APV SBAS approaches within the Flight Information Region in Warsaw.
A representative of the European GNSS Agency (GSA) also participated to the meeting. Marta Krywanis, Market Innovation Officer at GSA presented the activities conducted at the Agency and described the organizational issues related to EGNOS and Galileo. In the second part of the presentation financial tools and activities supporting the publication on the LPV procedure were explained.
Participating in the meeting were representatives of airports, aviation clubs, operators and ATO. They learned in the event how operations using E-GNSS systems can be implemented and how to finance them. Also presenters of PAŻP explained the benefits of approaching with the use of the LPV procedure, which increases air safety during landing operations and allows for more airport availability during difficult atmospheric conditions, and all this at a small financial cost because there is no need of ground infrastructure development
The meeting was organized by GTL S.A. (owner of the airport), the European GNSS Agency (GSA) and two representatives of the CaBilAvi consortium – the GNSS Centre of Excellence (GCE) and Kosmonauta.net company from Gdańsk.
Materials from the event including presentations, photos and information leaflets will be shared at the CaBilAvi project at: http://cabilavi.gnss-centre.cz/airport-breakfast-katowice
More about EGNOS
EGNOS (the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service) is a regional satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) operational since 2009. The EGNOS system consists of three geostationary satellites and a network of ground stations. The aim of this service is to improve performance of satellite navigation systems (e.g. GPS, Galileo). Thanks to EGNOS, the precision of GNSS services has increased from 10 to 3 metres. The system was created to provide safety of life navigation services to aviation, maritime and land-based users.
Its role in the aviation segment is particularly critical as GNSS alone is not capable of meeting the strict operational criteria established by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in critical flight stages such as final approaches. EGNOS has been certified for civil aviation since 2011.