The civil aviation ministry Tuesday exempted Boeing 787 aircraft from GPS-aided GEO Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) compliance till 2025. "Boeing 787 aircraft is exempted from above GAGAN compliance till 31 December, 2025," Ministry said in a release, reported news agency ANI.
In its notification dated August 18, 2022, the ministry said it has made the amendments in the National Civil Aviation Policy, 2016 in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (a) of section 26 of the National Civil Aviation Policy, 2016.
The National Civil Aviation Policy, 2016 was published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part 1, Section 1, dated 29th June, 2016 and amended vide notifications dated 07th January, 2019 and 12th June, 2020.
What’s GPS-aided GEO Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) system?
GAGAN is India’s own satellite-based augmentation system jointly developed by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It is to be noted that only a small group of countries comprising the US, Japan, and Europe have their own satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS).
GAGAN provides lateral and vertical guidance as an aircraft approaches the runway for landing. Small airports can benefit from its precision.
The system provides a very accurate and high-level of satellite signals for precision air navigation over the entire Indian airspace, and has the capability of expanding to nearby regions, according to the Business Standardard report. It is capable of providing navigation services for departure, en-route and landing operations to equipped planes.
It remains the fourth such SBAS system that has been operationalised after the US’ WAAS, European Union’s EGNOS an d Japan’s MSAS and it is interoperable with the other three.