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The airline LATAM Ecuador carried out a verification flight prior to the start of operations to the Catamayo Airport in the province of Store. It also already has the authorization to start operations.
With an estimated start date within the first quarter of the 2020, LATAM Ecuador made its first flight to Loja as a verification flight to this airport complex.
It is also important to indicate that with date 11 February 2019, LATAM Ecuador received authorization from the Ecuadorian aeronautical authority to increase its operating permit for the following route:
- Quito – Store – Quito, until 7 weekly frequencies.
with this permission, the airline has the power to start its operations, date to be announced soon.
This flight is focused on the process of granting frequencies that the airline carries out in order to start its flights between Quito Mariscal Sucre International Airport and the Catamayo City Airport.
Verification flight to Catamayo
As we have previously reviewed, Catamayo Airport is a complex operation and not any aircraft can operate on this runway. 1.860 meters located at 1.237 meters above sea level and surrounded by mountains with a variable climate.
With all the complexities indicated, operating at this airport requires certain additional processes to be able to do so.
In this context, LATAM Ecuador airline made its first verification flight to Catamayo, missed approach and landing in what is considered the most difficult commercial airport in our country.
This process consists of the following:
- Validation flight implies: see the adherence of the airplane to the RNAV RNP procedure, see the “volability” of the procedure by the pilots.
- RNAV RNP procedures are for approach and instrument departures.
- First time an airplane lands and takes off in Catamayo using instrumental and non-visual procedures, When the process is finished, it will make this airport one of the largest operational capacities in the country.
- RNAV RNP procedures, are based on the capabilities of the aircraft's navigation instruments, one of them is GPS in satellite navigation.
- There is an investment in aircraft technology so that it has this capacity and can perform adequately at the Catamayo airport.
- In the validation process, we work with the DGAC and they assist in the approval of the operation and instrument flight procedures.
- The conditions of the Catamayo airport are complex due to the location and surrounding terrain, by the winds, track length and temperature.
Why don't other airlines fly Airbus to Catamayo??
Before reviewing this endpoint, It is important to indicate that Tame has flown in an Airbus A319 to Loja years ago in search of certification of the operation of this aircraft in Catamayo, without success due to operational restrictions as it could be known.
Now LATAM Ecuador has carried out RNP approach and departure procedures that are tied to several operational actions that the pilot must apply together with those procedures..
It also goes together with performance actions that we have in the EFB electronics flight bags performance tool.. If aircraft X puts the approach coordinates in its GPS or FMC and flies it, it is not going to do the same since it does not have the ability to maintain the exact trajectory that a satellite procedure has, can generate a potential conflict with the terrain.
Finally remember that the start of operations is subject to the approval of the frequencies requested by the National Civil Aviation Council of Ecuador.
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