Europe’s Waas Equivalent Approved for Aviation Use

Following a certification and verification process, the European Commission approved the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (Egnos) “safety-of-life” service for aviation last month. Egnos is closely similar to, and compatible with, the U.S. Waas satellite-based augmentation system that corrects timing errors in GPS signals, enabling GPS precision approaches and shorter, more-direct routes. The Egnos coverage area currently includes most European states and will be further extended soon. According to the EC, Egnos is a precursor of Galileo, the global satellite navigation system being developed by the European Union. To use Egnos’s safety-of-life service, aircraft need to be equipped with a Waas/Egnos-enabled receiver and airports must have Egnos-specific approach procedures for their runways. The first published Egnos approach procedure was at Pau Pyrénées Airport in France.