The St. Moritz-Samedan regional airport has opened its satellite-based instrument approach. On Thursday, the first aircraft, which had been guided by Skyguide and the airport via the new procedure, landed safely in Samedan.
For now, the procedure will only be available for the duration of the World Ski Championships, after which the experience will be evaluated. Definitive commissioning is planned for winter 2018-2019.
The first GNSS instrument approach to the regional airport in the Upper Engadin went smoothly. On Thursday afternoon, a Falcon 900 business aircraft coming from Madrid was guided by Swiss air traffic control Skyguide to a waiting room above Lower Engadine and from there via Zernez on the approach to Samedan.
Using satellite navigation, the aircraft steered onto the runway axis, sank over the valley in a controlled manner and pierced the cloud cover at an altitude of 2600 meters in the Zuoz area. From there, the pilots continued the final approach on sight and landed safely in Samedan at 14:56.
Since there is no radar system at Engadin Airport itself, the aircraft must maintain very large distances from each other when approaching GNSS instruments. Under instrument flight conditions, only a maximum of four to five approaches per hour will be possible. The procedure will therefore not result in additional traffic.
Its advantage is that all instrument approaches are carried out according to an internationally published procedure. This increases the safety and predictability of flights to Samedan.
The GNSS approach to Samedan will only be introduced on a trial basis for the 2017 World Ski Championships. The trial operation will give the airport, Skyguide air traffic control and the Federal Office of Civil Aviation the opportunity to gain valuable experience. Definitive commissioning is only planned for winter 2018/2019.
video
A short film explaining the GNSS approach is available at
Contact Engadin Airport AG
- Corado Manzoni, airport manager
- +41 81 851 08 20
- corado.manzoni@engadin-airport.ch