Air Transport

Reference stations for the USA's wide-area augmentation system (WAAS) are to be installed in Canada and Mexico next year under an agreement by the three countries' civil aviation authorities under the North American Aviation Trilateral (NAAT).

Adding WAAS reference stations at four sites in Canada and five in Mexico will allow the space-based GPS augmentation system to be used for cross-border navigation, and will improve availability of the WAAS signal in Alaska, says the US Federal Aviation Administration.

Extended WAAS coverage will improve performance for GPS-based approaches in Canada by late 2005, says air traffic services provider NavCanada.

The FAA, Transport Canada and the Mexican DGAC have also agreed to implement reduced vertical separation minima (RVSM) standards between 29,000ft (8,800m) and 41,000ft to increase capacity throughout North American airspace on 20 January next year - the deadline for introduction of US domestic RVSM. Talks on extending RVSM to Caribbean and South American airspace continue.

The NAAT members have also agreed to develop a harmonised implementation plan for required navigation performance/area navigation (RNP/R-NAV) in North America. Whereas WAAS improves the accuracy and availability of GPS and is favoured by general aviation, RNP/R-NAV is backed by the airlines and allows pilots of aircraft with multi-sensor navigation systems to select more direct routes.

Eurocontrol and the FAA have signed a memorandum of co-operation on air traffic management initiatives. Planned research covers wake vortices, safety management, separation concepts and communications.