ILS on the Block

In 2015, the FAA began looking to rationalize ILS approaches. In this context, rationalize means cut. The following year, the FAA developed a cost/benefit quantitative model and conducted an analysis at about 2900 airports with few or no RNAV SIDs or STARs. The finished product was a plan to decommission Cat I ILS approaches at some of these airports between 2020-2030. Before a decision was reached, the project was shelved in 2017.

Fred Simonds

Wednesday, January 29, 2020 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The FAA is actively phasing out older ground-based navigation systems, including NDBs and VORs, and is now targeting the decommissioning of traditional ILS approaches due to their age, high maintenance costs, and operational drawbacks.
LPV approaches, enabled by WAAS, are rapidly becoming the preferred and more prevalent precision approach, significantly outnumbering ILS and offering substantial cost, operational, and safety advantages.
The FAA plans to "rationalize" (decommission) hundreds of Category I ILS approaches, particularly at airports where LPVs provide redundant vertical guidance, as part of an effort to modernize air navigation and achieve significant cost savings.
While a complete shutdown of ILS is not imminent, its role is diminishing, and the ongoing shift towards LPVs signals the beginning of the end for ILS as the primary standard for precision approaches.

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First, the FAA decommissioned 479 NDB procedures in 2005, saving around $8 million a year. The under-300 associated stations owned by the FAA were far beyond their planned 20-year service lives. Then they implemented the VOR Minimum Operational Network (MON) Program to retask and reshape Victor airways into a downsized backup network should GPS fail. That plan will decommission 311 VORs by 2025.

The FAA wants as many approaches with vertical guidance as possible. Statistics show that a pilot is four times more likely to have a CFIT accident flying a non-precision approach than one offering vertical guidance. Having trimmed the low-hanging fruit, the FAA is looking at the Sacred Cow, the ILS.