Benefits on using EGNOS by Civil Aviation
EGNOS offers a variety of benefits to the Civil Aviation community:
Safety improvement
EGNOS enables the use of Approaches with Vertical guidance (APV), thus providing significant safety improvements at airports or airfields where approaches with vertical guidance are currently not available (Non Precision Approaches NPA)
Improved performance
EGNOS improves the positioning accuracy and increases the reliability of the positioning information, supplementing the GPS signals with signals from three separate geostationary satellites
Integrity information
EGNOS provides information concerning the reliability of the GPS system by transmitting integrity messages within six seconds whenever the quality of the signals received falls below certain thresholds
Lower Minima
Landing could be possible with lower visibility levels at airports not equipped with ILS, thus reducing delays and diversions to alternative airports and cancelled flights
Curved/segmented precision approaches
More flexibility precision approach procedures which would result in time/fuel savings and benefits from reduced noise impact
Increased runway capacity
Since EGNOS has no critical/sensitive area, it is considered that the time between consecutive approach aircraft and alternate landings and departures could be reduced.
Infrastructure
Cost savings due to the progressive removal of some ground based navigation aids, which have expensive maintenance costs. Operations in areas with insufficient conventional navigation aid infrastructure
Equipment
The EGNOS solution simplifies the on-board equipment