Afterés of an extensive certification processón and coordinationón with the Managementón General of Aviationón Civil – DGAC that startedó 4 añthe atreás, and all the staffécynical and specialized, the Quito Airport certifies ILS CAT II, what to allowá landings with aún lower visibility compared to current procedures.
PróI hope to fulfill 5 añoperations, Quito Airport continues to innovate and improve its procedures that allow it to reduceún más the impact of weather on your operations or other factors such as smoke or dust. Since the Airport startedó operations, There have been several procedures that have been implemented so that closures due to weather or the difficulty of landing or takeoff under complicated visibility conditions affect the hundreds of flights that operate daily in the main terminal atéEcuador area.
Among these improvements that the airport has implemented since its operation in February 2013 stand out:
- Implementationóno installationócentral runway lighting system number.
- LVP – Low Visibility Procedures (Low visibility procedures): procedures that are implemented at an airport to ensure safe operation under visibility conditions that are under the míoperating standards for your categoryía.
- RVR – Runway Visual Range (Track Visual Range): is the range at which a pilot in an aircraftón can see runway markings or lights that delimit the runway or identify the runway center under reduced visibility conditions.
- Reductionón of mílanding mood – Decision Altitude/Height (DA/DH): the height míanima in which a birdón can descend until before deciding whether to abort its landing or continue landing safely in conditions of reduced visibility. They are currently 200 feet above the ground and a visibility of 550 meters, when the airport began operations 200 feet and 1500 meters of visibility.
- RNAV procedures: These procedures do not use guíace on land as VOR, ILS o NDB, but rather they base their operation based on geographic points.áfics and operate with GPS satellite systems. This advanced system is the trend in the world, allows landings even with reduced visibility, but they require a certificationóadditional n for operators.
Current conditions CAT I
Currently, Quito Airport isá equipped and cataloged with the aforementioned aids, but alsoén with the ILS CAT I, which is an Instrument Landing System system that helps pilots align to the runway and descend to the decision point.ón (200 feet on the ground in the case of Quito). This is a system báinstrument landing system and its best landing conditions are as follows:
| Decision height | Runway visual range (RVR) | Visibility minimum |
| 200 pies (61 meters) o más | 1,800 ft (550 m) in some airports 1,210 ft (370 m) | 800 m (2,600 ft). |
New CAT II
The new landing system at Quito Airport is advanced and allows greater operability. Para la operationón de is the system, both pilots, airplanes like airílines must comply with the certificationón necessary to make use of it. Its landing conditions are:
| Decision height | Runway visual range (RVR) | Visibility minimum |
| Less than 200 magpies y más the 100 ft (30 meters) | 1,000 ft(300 m) | N/A |
Certificationón
The certificationón, test and calibration flightsón of teams was carried out by the téDGAC technicians in the aircraftón laboratory of the institutionón HC-DAC BEECHCRAFT Super King Air 350 con la realizationón of más de 30 flight hours to achieve correct operation and implementationón of standardization proceduresón.
With this certificationón Quito Airport continues to be at the forefront of technologyólogic and procedureséprisoners in the país, being the úonly airport in Ecuador where these aids have been implemented for the operation.ón in low visibility conditions and the úcurrently only with CAT II. Other airports like Cuenca, Guayaquil, San Cristóbal and Baltra have implemented RNAV arrival and departure procedures that allow m routesás short, save fuel and land with lower visibility than ILS instrument landings.
Thanks to the best that have been given in technologyía and procedures, in Nuevo Mariscal Sucre there have only been 18 hours and 58 closing minutes during the 2017 against 133 hours and 24 minutes that occurred in the Antiguo Mariscal Sucre in the 2012, what is a reductionón of the 87%.
In the future and if conditions allow, the airport caníto certify landings with visibility 0 with the CAT III system and its variants.
