Honeywell’s SmartPath has been selected by Airservices Australia as the country’s first Ground-Based Augmentation System (GBAS) to improve operational efficiency and decrease air traffic noise at Sydney Airport.
Designed to overcome the limitations of traditional Instrument Landing Systems (ILS), a ground-based instrument approach system that relies on radio signals and lighting, GBAS augments Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) to make them accurate and safe enough to use during aircraft approaches and landings at airports experiencing high traffic volumes, according to Honeywell.
SmartPath will complete operational testing and evaluation by Airservices, Sydney Airport and Qantas by the end of Q1 2013 before becoming commercially operational, pending certification by Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA).
As well as the recent completion of SmartPath at Bremen, Germany, the system also went live at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International in 2012. Smart Path systems are also currently being installed at Rio de Janeiro; Malaga, Spain; Memphis, Tenn.; and Houston.
Following the success of the SmartPath trials at Sydney, Airservices is now commencing work on extending the country’s GBAS network to Melbourne International Airport.