GPS –An Airline User's View

Abstract

This paper is intended to provide an operator's view of the impact of GPS on the air transport industry. The discussion centres on use of GPS for the en-route, oceanic, terminal area and precision approach phases of flight. In summary the author suggests the following:

(i) Inefficient use of airspace is costing the airlines a huge amount of money. However, GPS is not a pre-requisite of a move towards more efficient use of that airspace, although it will be required as part of the eventual CNS/ATM package. In the near term, better usage of current equipment such as IRS and DME, together with the introduction of ADS can provide the required level of accuracy for reduced separation in en-route and oceanic airspace.

(ii) There is a real need to provide navigation for non-precision approach worldwide, independent of ground-based infrastructure. This is the area in which GPS can provide the most immediate improvement to safety.

(iii) There are still a large number of questions hanging over GPS for precision approach. This leads the author to believe that it will not be capable of replacing ILS for the more critical Cat 2 and 3 applications quickly enough to avoid the loss of these capabilities in some critical locations. For this reason, it is postulated that MLS will be required in Europe, at least. Even if MLS is not required, there will still need to be a means of dealing with the transition away from ILS and for this reason the concept of a multi-mode receiver has been developed.