Photo: Federal Aviation Administration
Horizon realizes benefits of WAAS
More than a decade ago, Horizon Air, a regional affiliate of Alaska Airlines, decided to implement the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) as a part of its overall solution.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) SatNav News winter 2020 newsletter, the airline has identified a number of benefits from implementing the WAAS, including pre-departure planning, enhanced safety and scheduled reliability.
“Our schedule reliability has become the best in our route structure due to the lowest possible approach minimums at airports Horizon Air serves,” said Perry Solmonson, Horizon Q400 check airman/flight ops duty officer.
Delta lands GLS approach in Dominican Republic
On Oct. 16, 2019, Delta 737 pilots, Captain Jon Hensler and Captain C.E. “Noah” Flood, along with 737NG Technical Manager Mike Mannino, conducted a GBAS Landing System (GLS) approach in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. According to the FAA SatNav News newsletter, the GLS landing was a first for a North American carrier operating a revenue flight into Latin America.
The Punta Cana airport is the first Latin American airport with GLS capability. GLS approaches at this airport permit significantly lower operational weather minimums, allowing aircraft to safely operate into this airfield when they would otherwise need to divert.
According to the newsletter, the approach was the beginning of a several month Delta trial for GLS approaches at the Punta Cana airport.
Check out the full stories in the FAA SatNav News winter 2020 newsletter here.