Assessment of the GIS-Aided Precise Approach Using the GNSS-GBAS Landing Systems

Abstract

The radio navigational Instrument Landing Systems (ILSs) are currently intended to guide the aircrafts in lateral and vertical dimensions to the runway surface safely and precisely. Therefore, they are strongly related to the geographic location of an airport and its runway(s). The ILS systems use the aids of the radio frequency radiation to achieve this purpose, depending on the ground emitting stations, and providing the guidance to the runway centreline location along with the glide slope guidance during the Final Approach Segment (FAS). Furthermore, the new ILS systems are fully aided by the coordinates of the Global Positioning System (GPS) instead of the ground radiations, they use the waypoint fixes during the landing phase of flight by means of transmitting their corrections to the on-board receivers. Those new invented Ground Based Augmentation Systems (GBAS) are more precise and trustable, they also increase the capacity of the huge air traffic demands nowadays by multiple and non-straight approaches. As a result, the Geographic Information System (GIS) of any airport supported by the GBAS system is intended to be fully used and implemented in both instrumental and procedural aids. Many previous studies had indicated that the old procedural approaches should be changed to the new GIS aided ones, but without pointing out when and how to implement such important transfer. The purpose of this study is to assess the performance of the GIS aided precision procedures using the GBAS stations, and to identify to what extent they can enhance the navigational aviation in the air traffic management domain. A special focus will be put on the Hungarian Budapest international airport in terms of both capability motivating factors and the current GIS infrastructure aiding. Results showed a promising chance for more investment in installing the GBAS stations in the airport. That will enable more capacity and easier approaches in all weather conditions.