Toulouse, France, 11 October 2023
The cooperation project between Europe and China financed by the EU-China Aviation Partnership Project (*), and supported by NAVBLUE, has successfully demonstrated the Established on RNP AR concept to support simultaneous independent approaches in Tianjin Binhai airport, China, on September 26th, 2023.
Required Navigation Performance with Authorization Required (RNP AR), a Performance Based Navigation (PBN) navigation specification, is the ideal solution for this type of airport.
During this demonstration, two Tianjin Airlines Airbus A320 aircraft performed a simultaneous approach at night on runways 16L and 16R. One aircraft used an RNP AR approach designed by NAVBLUE, the other one used the published Instrument Landing System (ILS) approach.
Simultaneous independent approaches are an important concept to support the operational efficiency needs of large airports. Traditionally this concept relies on the use of the Instrument Landing System (ILS), which implies long straight trajectories.
Established on RNP AR (EoR) is a recent concept that enables the use of RNP AR approaches along with ILS or another RNP AR. This concept significantly improves the efficiency of simultaneous independent approaches:
- The RNP AR trajectory is much shorter than the ILS, with track miles reduction between 10 to 30 miles per approach.
- The ILS trajectory itself is also shortened as the constraint for 1000 feet vertical separation is removed.
This demonstration paves the way for extended trial operations in Tianjin and the use of EoR in China and Europe as a means to foster positive environmental impact:
- Reducing track miles
- Reducing noise at airports with parallel runways
This project was led with the cooperation of the Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC), Tianjin Airlines, Tianjin Airport, FRACS and PBN4ATC.
(*) The EU-China Aviation Partnership Project (APP) is part of the EU-North Asia Aviation Partnership Programme, implemented by EASA and funded by the European Union.
