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After an extensive certification and coordination process with the General Directorate of Civil Aviation – DGAC that started 4 years ago, and all technical and specialized personnel, Quito Airport certifies ILS CAT II, which will allow landings with even lower visibility compared to current procedures.
Soon to be fulfilled 5 years of operations, Quito Airport continues to innovate and improve its procedures that allow it to further reduce the incidence of weather in its operations or other factors such as smoke or dust.. Since the Airport began operations, There have been several procedures that have been implemented so that closures due to weather or the difficulty of landing or takeoff under complicated visibility conditions affect the hundreds of flights that operate daily in Ecuador's main air terminal..
Among these improvements that the airport has implemented since its operation in February 2013 stand out:
- Implementation and installation of central runway lighting system.
- LVP – Low Visibility Procedures (Low visibility procedures): procedures that are implemented at an airport to ensure safe operation under visibility conditions that are below the operating minimums for its category.
- RVR – Runway Visual Range (Track Visual Range): is the range in which a pilot in an airplane can see the runway markings or lights that delimit the runway or identify the center of the runway under reduced visibility conditions.
- Landing minimum reduction – Decision Altitude/Height (DA/DH): the minimum height to which an airplane can descend to before deciding whether to abort its landing or continue landing safely in conditions of reduced visibility. They are currently 200 feet above the ground and a visibility of 550 meters, when the airport began operations 200 feet and 1500 meters of visibility.
- RNAV procedures: These procedures do not use ground guides such as VOR, ILS o NDB, but rather they base their operation based on geographical points and operate with GPS satellite systems.. This advanced system is the trend in the world, allows landings even with reduced visibility, but require additional certification for operators.
Current conditions CAT I
Currently, Quito Airport is equipped and cataloged with the aforementioned aids, but also with the ILS CAT I, which is an Instrument Landing System system that helps pilots align to the runway and descend to the decision point (200 feet on the ground in the case of Quito). This is a basic instrument landing system and its best landing conditions are as follows:
| Decision height | Runway visual range (RVR) | Visibility minimum |
| 200 pies (61 meters) or more | 1,800 ft (550 m) in some airports 1,210 ft (370 m) | 800 m (2,600 ft). |
New CAT II
The new landing system at Quito Airport is advanced and allows greater operability. For the operation of this system, both pilots, airplanes and airlines must comply with the necessary certification to use it. Its landing conditions are:
| Decision height | Runway visual range (RVR) | Visibility minimum |
| Less than 200 feet and more 100 ft (30 meters) | 1,000 ft(300 m) | N/A |
Certification
The certification, Test flights and equipment calibration were carried out by DGAC technicians in the institution's HC-DAC BEECHCRAFT Super King Air laboratory plane. 350 with the realization of more than 30 flight hours to achieve correct operation and implementation of standardization procedures.
With this certification, Quito Airport continues to be at the forefront of technology and air procedures in the country., being the only airport in Ecuador where these aids have been implemented for operation in low visibility conditions and the only one currently with CAT II. Other airports like Cuenca, Guayaquil, San Cristóbal and Baltra have implemented RNAV arrival and departure procedures that allow shorter routes, save fuel and land with lower visibility than ILS instrument landings.
Thanks to the best that have been given in technology and procedures, in Nuevo Mariscal Sucre there have only been 18 hours and 58 closing minutes during the 2017 against 133 hours and 24 minutes that occurred in the Antiguo Mariscal Sucre in the 2012, which is a reduction of 87%.
In the future and if conditions allow, the Airport could certify landings with visibility 0 with the CAT III system and its variants.
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