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NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Western Arctic MP Dennis Bevington says he supports a recommendation that would see GPS units installed at both ends of Arctic airport runways.

"It's a very straightforward request the airline pilots association put to us," Bevington said. "Not only would it increase safety, but it would allow them to land in a wider variety of weather conditions."

On July 4, the federal government announced new airline safety regulations for Canada. Planes capable of carrying six or more passengers will be required to have a Terrain Awareness and Warning System (TAWS), which will alert pilots and crew to possible collisions with obstacles.

After the announcement, Bevington and New Democrat transport critic Olivia Chow met with Devin Lyall, chairman of the First Air Pilots Association, to discuss ways to improve Arctic airport safety and efficiency.

Lyall said installing a GPS unit at either end of runways would give pilots more options when landing, which is safer and increases the chances of planes touching down where and when they're supposed to.

"The more approaches you have would give you more options for alternates, it gives you a better shot at landing," Lyall said. "That's what we want to do, is land at our primary airport."

Capt. Peter Black is the chair of the president's committee for remote operations for the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA).

"Anytime an aircraft is unable to land at a destination, it's always a waste of time, money and fuel," he said.

Black said NAV Canada is working on new satellite-based approach procedures.

In an e-mail to News/North, Jonathan Bagg, communications advisor for NAV Canada, stated the organization is aiming to include two runway approaches in its design of airports' Global Navigation Satellite Systems.

"With respect to approaches from both ends of runways, when we are designing new satellite-based (GNSS) approaches to an airport, we are now completing designs for all runway ends wherever possible," the e-mail stated. "For approaches based on ground-based navigational aids, we usually design for all runway ends when the location of the navigational aids permits it."

Other improvements

Bevington said other suggested improvements included lengthening runways and paving runways currently made of gravel.

There are six paved runways in the North, located in Yellowknife, Inuvik, Norman Wells, Fort Simpson Rankin Inlet and Iqaluit, according to an NWT airport study published in 2007.

Bevington said paving gravel runways will allow newer aircraft to land.

Tracy Medve, president of Canadian North, gave a presentation to the federal Senate Standing Committee on Transport and Communications in October, 2011.

New planes are not equipped to land on gravel, which means Northern airlines have to use older, less fuel-efficient planes, Medve said in a transcript.

While Medve said the older planes are safe, maintaining them is costly.

"The costs are, by necessity, passed on to our customers," Medve stated. "We are in a bit of a revolving door here."

Jon Lee, the Transportation Safety Board's western regional manager, said lengthening runways is a way to mitigate runway overruns. Landing accidents and overruns were both identified on the board's watchlist, a report that tracks transportation safety incidents throughout Canada.

Lee said the board, which only has the power to make recommendations, acknowledges improvements would be expensive.

"To lengthen an airport in Edmonton, Alberta, is a heck of a lot easier than it would be in Pangnirtung," Lee said. "That's where the challenge comes in."

Lee said in other parts of the world, airports are using a technology called an Engineered Material Arresting System (EMAS), which is a material installed on a runway overrun designed to quickly stop an aircraft.

"It's like a type of slightly compressed, pseudo-concrete material," Lee said. "It's designed to rapidly decelerate an aircraft without damaging it."

Forty-two airports in the United States were equipped with EMAS by 2011, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Systems can cost upwards of $3 million.

Minimum fuel requirement

Though GPS units would increase the chances of landing, Lyall said it would not reduce the amount of fuel planes need to take along in case they need to land at an alternate airport.

"We would always have to have our legal amount of fuel on board," he said. "You have to have enough fuel to fly to the airport you're going to and an alternate."

Fuel requirements are mandated by Transport Canada.

Lyall said the suggestions will help make flying in the North safer.

"We're members of the community, too, so we're just looking to improve safety where we can," he said. "It's a direct benefit to the people we serve if we have better approaches."

Bevington said he has sent letters to both Dave Ramsay, NWT Transportation minister, and Peter Taptuna, Nunavut's minister of Economic Development and Transportation, asking them for their support.

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