Buthan, November 16th, 2018
Required Navigation Performance Authorisation Required (RNP AR) Cloud Break procedures for Paro Airport (IATA: PBH, ICAO: VQPR) have been designed by NAVBLUE experts in close collaboration with authorities and operators and were published earlier this year.
Paro Airport is the only existing international airport serving the Kingdom of Bhutan. NAVBLUE developed these procedures for them with two main operators, Bhutan Airlines and Druk Air, as well as the Bhutanese Civil Aviation Authority (BCAA) and the Department of Air Transport (DoAT), and this revised documentation will replace the existing VHF omnidirectional range (VOR) procedures.
The RNP AR Cloud Break procedures are the first Instrument Flight Procedures (IFP) to be approved in Bhutan. Paro is one of the most challenging airports in the world, with a short, narrow runway located at an altitude of 7,300ft and surrounded by mountains up to 15,000ft. These procedures will allow a minima down to 10,300ft for CAT C aircraft, compared to the VOR/DME Cloud Break which was limited to CAT B aircraft with minima down to 12,500ft.
RNP AR Cloud Break procedures allow operators to take advantage of RNP AR precision almost to the threshold, after which the final section of the approach is flown under Visual Flight Rules (VFR); if visual meteorological conditions (VMC) conditions are not met at the published Decision Altitude (DA), the crew executes an Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) – RNP AR in the case of Paro – missed approach. This allows the operators to take the benefit of RNP AR even for visual approach.
“As already demonstrated on NAVBLUE projects in Colombia and Vietnam, our knowledge of aircraft performance and the latest procedure design techniques can now be focussed on single airports or even single runway ends,” said Thomas Lagaillarde, NAVBLUE VP of Ground Solutions. “We’ve built on the existing RNP AR APCH criteria to tailor a solution specific to the Paro operational environment working with the regulator to achieve approval – this an example of where NAVBLUE can bring real value to operators and airports alike.”About NAVBLUE
NAVBLUE is an integrated Flight Operations and Air Traffic Management Services company providing end-to-end, innovative and integrated flight operations solutions for a wide-range of customers around the world.NAVBLUE
Media Contact: Sarah Cooper
Phone +33 6 72 06 59 72
Send an email to: sarah.cooper@navblue.aero
