Commercial, Embedded Avionics

Frankfurt Airport Adds GBAS Landing System

By Woodrow Bellamy III  | December 16, 2013
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Frankfurt Airport will begin installing a ground-based augmentation system (GBAS) to replace its legacy instrument landing systems (ILS) and accommodate for future increases in air traffic, Honeywell said Monday, Dec. 16. 
 
The airport will deploy Honeywell’s SmartPath, which has certifications from both the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Germany’s Federal Supervisory Authority for Air Navigation Services (BAF). Deployment of SmartPath at Frankfurt has begun following recent flight tests of the system using a Dassault Falcon 900EX business jet equipped with GPS landing systems technology under a partnership between the Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) program and Honeywell, Airbus, Thales and Germany’s air navigation service provider DFS. 
 
Many airports are looking at replacing ILS systems with GBAS in order to reduce airspace congestion and accommodate for future projected growth in air traffic. SmartPath has already been deployed at another German airport, Bremen International. 
 
"Unlike ILS, GBAS supports multiple approaches simultaneously, reducing airspace congestion and lowering airport noise and emissions. For airports such as Frankfurt that are ambitious about growth, Honeywell’s SmartPath GBAS represents a cost-effective, easy-to-install alternative to ILS," said Pat Reines, senior product manager of SmartPath at Honeywell. 
 
Honeywell expects the system to be live at Frankfurt beginning in the third quarter of 2014. 
 
 

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