The future of airline navigation will be discussed in Queenstown next week during Approach15, seeking to expand performance based navigation (PBN) across the Pacific.
About 70 delegates from New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific will attend the Approach15 forum, hosted by Airways New Zealand in association with leading PBN provider GroupEAD.
Airways chief operating officer Pauline Lamb said flight procedures with PBN were satellite-based, rather than dictated by ground-based navigation aids, which enabled ''radical efficiencies and safety enhancements'', particularly where radar control was not possible.
PBN is a broad range of technologies moving aviation away from a ground-based navigation system towards one more reliant on the performance and capabilities of equipment on board the aircraft.
Required navigation performance (RNP) is a type of PBN which allows an aircraft to fly a precise and specific path with a high level of accuracy.
The accuracy level chosen depends on the phase of the flight - RNP4, meaning the flight will not be more than 6.4km (4 miles) either side of the ideal track, was commonly used for transtasman flights.
For arrivals in Queenstown, RNP1 was often used.
Pilots are alerted when the required level of accuracy in flying the flight path is not met.
Airways has been gradually introducing PBN techniques throughout New Zealand with ''outstanding results''.
Since the system was started at Queenstown Airport in 2012, twice as many aircraft movements could be handled in an hour in poor weather, despite the mountainous terrain.
By the end of next year, Airways will have implemented PBN at all the controlled aerodromes in New Zealand, making it the default position for instrument flight rules (IFR) flight management.
''We're making good progress to establish PBN as the default navigation system used for departure, arrival and en route procedures.
''The Approach15 forum will provide the opportunity to share these developments with the world,'' she said.
As part of the forum delegates would also hear about the International Civil Aviation Organisation's Advanced RNP,
new equipment mandates from Civil Aviation Safety Authority and the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority's New Southern Sky national airspace and air navigation plan.
