Foreword Cardiff Airport connects Wales to the world, handling over a million passengers a year with 50 direct routes available and more than 900 connecting destinations worldwide through hubs including Amsterdam Schiphol, Dublin and Barcelona. In March 2013, Cardiff Airport was bought by the Welsh Government and a strategy has been implemented which addressed every aspect of the business including a number of improvements to enhance the customer experience. This consultation is part of our commitment to keep the local community informed of advances in technology which could impact on how aircraft navigate at Cardiff and other airports across the World. Area Navigation (RNAV) is at the heart of new technology with the potential to streamline air traffic procedures, ultimately delivering fuel savings, reduced emissions and an improved noise environment for people on the ground. While its full utilisation may be some years in the future we believe that RNAV, which uses satellite- based navigation systems to ensure more reliable, repeatable and predictable flight paths, is worth investing in today. This document provides further details on the case for doing so, and explains the procedures involved. Thank you for taking an interest in Cardiff Airport, we are committed to listening to all responses as part of this consultation. Debra Barber, Managing Director Section 1 Introduction This document describes the Cardiff Airport proposal to replicate, implement and eventually replace the current final approach routes into Cardiff Airport with more accurately defined routes utilising the improved capabilities of modern aircraft. Section 2 explains what Area Navigation (RNAV) is, how it will be used, and its potential benefits. It also clarifies the scope of the consultation. Section 3 explains why this consultation is required and lists the stakeholders with whom we are consulting. Section 4 provides an overview of current operations at Cardiff Airport including diagrams illustrating the tracks taken by aircraft approaching the airfield. Section 5 sets out the proposed RNAV routes, which are designed to replicate the current tracks as closely as possible. Section 6 sets out environmental considerations. Section 7 sets out how stakeholders should respond to the consultation and explains what will happen next. 2. Introduction of RNAV at Cardiff Airport This consultation concerns modernisation of the existing arrival routes to Cardiff Airport. The existing routes used by aircraft (termed “conventional” routes) rely on 1950s technology of ground based radio beacons. A well established and much more accurate form of navigation is aRea NAVigation (RNAV) which uses a combination of satellite and ground-based navigation technology to permit aircraft to follow a precisely defined path over the ground with far greater accuracy than is possible with conventional routes. This in turn enables pilots to fly pre-determined, predictable arrival profiles. Aircraft today already use RNAV extensively to fly in our airspace, even though the existing conventional routes have not been specifically designed for its use. Processes are underway at a European level to make modernisation of the route system a legal requirement for the UK and other European states by 2020. This will require all member states, including the UK, to upgrade routes to the RNAV standards. This legislation will be enacted by UK mandates to be introduced by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). The CAA is planning to mandate that all operators will have to be RNAV 1 approved by November 2017, and then require RNAV routes to be introduced by winter 2019. Modernising our conventional routes is therefore mandatory and inevitable; this consultation concerns how we intend to achieve this at Cardiff Airport with minimal impact to our stakeholders. Cardiff Airport and its airline customers have identified an opportunity to introduce RNAV for the final stages of the approach phase to the airport. The Cardiff Airport airspace was thoroughly reviewed, redesigned and updated to suit the current and anticipated future levels of traffic growth in 2006. This process considered the requirements of other airspace users. Our proposals for the introduction of RNAV are based on updating the later stages of approach routes through “replication” whereby the existing route alignment is preserved as much as possible, whilst catering for the greater navigational accuracy of Performance Based Navigation (PBN). The use of RNAV across the UK will enhance navigational accuracy and should introduce a number of key benefits. These include: a safer and more efficient Air Traffic Control (ATC) system requiring less controller intervention; more efficient operations leading to reduced cost, flying time and emissions; the ability to allow more predictable patterns of over flight as well as stabilised arrivals and approaches which should generate less noise. By giving pilots a defined flight path from beginning to end they can plan a descent which avoids level segments, optimises power settings and speed in the descent, configures the aircraft for minimum noise, reduces fuel burn and keeps the aircraft higher over the ground for longer. Such operations are known as Continuous Descent Operations involving unbroken descent from cruising altitude to the runway. The introduction of RNAV replications of the current procedures will enable more effective and reliable use of Continuous Descent Operations. An aircraft must be certificated as having the appropriate navigation systems and flight crew training before it can fly RNAV1 procedures. The operation of the Air Traffic Management system beyond Cardiff will also affect the likely take-up of RNAV procedures in the immediate future. ATC at Cardiff will still need to interact with arriving aircraft on a flight by flight, tactical basis, creating a spread of aircraft tracks, similar to that experienced now. This is not predicted to change significantly in the short term, until new arrival management tools are implemented on a pan-European basis. However, over time, the new routes will become the primary inbound tracks flown by the majority of aircraft. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), with support from the Department for Transport (DFT), the Ministry of Defence (MOD), NATS (the UK’s leading Air Navigation Service provider) and the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), has been leading work to develop the Future Airspace Strategy (FAS) for the period to 2030. The CAA’s primary objective is to develop a “safe, efficient airspace that has the capacity to meet reasonable demand, balances the needs of all users and mitigates the impact of aviation on the environment”. This national strategy is aligned with the UK’s commitments under the Single European Sky (SES) legislation, including implementation of the Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research (SESAR) programme. The aim of this proposed change is to build on these UK and European initiatives, utilising the latest navigation technology to enable modern aircraft to achieve the benefits mentioned above. The proposal does not influence or change the number of aircraft able to use the airport and traffic numbers are not expected to increase as a consequence of the change. Note: throughout this document altitude or heights of aircraft are expressed as height above mean sea level unless indicated otherwise. 3. Consultation The purpose of this consultation is to obtain feedback from stakeholders who may be affected by or have an interest in this proposal. Cardiff Airport has spoken with the CAA on the consultation process and they have agreed that provided this airspace change proposal replicates the existing patterns of aircraft arriving at Cardiff Airport today and does not introduce any additional residents to aircraft noise or introduce new volumes of traffic, it is appropriate for the consultation process to include: - The Cardiff Airport Consultative Committee which includes representatives of the local community and other organisations that have expressed an interest in the activities of the Airport; - Local authorities in the neighbourhood of the airport or whose area of responsibility is overflown by the routes which are to be affected but who are not already represented on the Cardiff Airport Consultative Committee; - Bristol City Council - The Ministry of Defence; - The airlines operating at Cardiff Airport; and - Principal airspace users and stakeholders as represented on the National Air Traffic Management Advisory Committee (NATMAC). The consultation follows the procedures set out in CAP 725 and the Cabinet Office Code of Practice on Consultation. This consultation document has been prepared by Cardiff International Airport Limited with assistance from NATS. The consultation period begins on 15th December 2014 and will run until 20th March 2015. Details of how to respond and the next steps can be found in Section 7. 4. Overview of current operations at Cardiff Airport The Cardiff Airport runway is aligned south-east / north-west. The north westerly runway is designated as runway 30 as aircraft landing on or taking off from the runway will be facing a magnetic compass heading of 300° whilst the south easterly runway is designated runway 12. Aircraft generally land and take-off into the wind which means that Runway 30 is the predominant runway direction, being used by around 60% of aircraft movements1. In 2013 approximately 14860 Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) aircraft arrived at Cardiff Airport. IFR represents