Quovadis Assists South African Airways with Approval of New RNP AR Procedures at Cape Town International Airport

The South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) has approved new Required Navigation Performance with Authorization Required (RNP AR) tailored procedures at Cape Town International Airport for South African Airways (SAA). The procedures have been designed in close cooperation between SAA and Quovadis, an Airbus ProSky company, along with SACAA and Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS).

Cape Town Airport is a high density airport with complex airspace. These procedures created are customized to SAA's operations, and will provide shorter tracks than conventional procedures, allowing a reduction in flight time and fuel burn on each approach and departure track. The flight tracks used by these new procedures are derived from already in-use visual tracks in and out of Cape Town, and the RNP AR procedures provide a means to fly these shorter tracks even in Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC). Quovadis sought to have ample collaboration with local Air Traffic Control (ATC), thus enabling approach procedures to perform Continuous Descent Operations (CDO), bringing further reduction in fuel burn during approach.

Additional benefits include RNP 0.3 accuracy level, providing lower approach minima. New RNP AR Engine Out Standard Instrument Departures (EOSIDs) have also been designed, providing a fully-guided and protected track to be followed in the unlikely event of an engine failure at takeoff.

SAA has taken an active part in the project, and in parallel has obtained operational approval from SACAA to conduct RNP AR operations. This involved implementing new airline procedures, data management processes and flight crew training on the new RNP AR procedures at Cape Town. Local ATC at Cape Town have trained to support the introduction of these new procedures with existing traffic and conventional tracks. Quovadis has assisted SAA, SACAA and ATNS throughout the RNP AR approval process, and the RNP AR procedures development and validation.

This approval constitutes a first for RNP AR procedures on the African continent, and paves the way for further developments of RNP AR procedures in Africa, in the interest both of enhanced safety and increased operational efficiency.

Capt. Johnny Woods, Director of Flight Operations, SAA said, "We have all worked very hard to reach this milestone. Now, South Africa is ready for a wider PBN deployment in line with ICAO recommendations. We have had great support from Quovadis and achieved all our objectives. We look forward to future implementations and procedure design."

Don-Jacques Ould-Ferhat, COO, Quovadis said, "We are proud to be a part of this project in South Africa. Our collaboration has produced safe and fuel-efficient flight procedures for SAA at Cape Town Airport. We look forward to having a long-term partnership with the highly-qualified teams in South Africa."