To improve the accuracy of GPS approaches different countries use different systems, but the UK is currently left out

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on General Aviation (APPG-GA) has published a report that calls for the UK to rejoin the EU-based EGNOS system, so that GPS instrument approaches could again be used to their full extent. As part of the Brexit process in 2021 the UK had left the EGNOS system, which improves the accuracy of GPS approaches, without having an alternative readily available.

Lord Davies of Gower, co-chair of the APPG-GA, said: “This report lays out squarely the absolute need
for such a service and we will now be taking this forward to government to seek an interim solution”. He also added that “Termination of EGNOS has had a significant effect on the ability of aviation to operate safely in inclement weather”.

The UK is currently developing its own alternative to EGNOS, and APPG-GA supports the continuation of such efforts. However, the group believes that an interim solution should be found until the UK alternative is ready. The cost/benefit analysis underlying the report found that for every £1 spent by the UK government in EGNOS, £2.60 of benefits would be delivered to the UK public.

In an email to Pilot, the APPG- GA said that “It would greatly assist our endeavours if your readers could contact their MPs asking for their support and writing to the Department for Transport and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy accordingly”.

Image: EU Agency for the Space Programme