VIA goes high tech with new guidance system

HARLINGEN — Valley International Airport is a step ahead of other airports in the nation, as it is projected to complete the preliminary test phase of a Federal Aviation Administration program expected to reduce costs and provide precision flight guidance for the nation’s airports in the future.

The program is set to transition airports to satellite-based navigation systems to use GPS, instead of the radio equipment many airports now use, as well as electronically map airport layouts.

VIA is “hoping” to finish the program as early as November, Michael Browning, VIA director of aviation, said. The airport is one of seven in the southwest region chosen by the FAA to participate in the A-GIS/eALP pilot program which began in September 2009.

Other airports include Dallas/Fort Worth International, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International and Will Rogers World in Oklahoma City.

Browning said the FAA has paid 95 percent of the program’s cost, while the airport paid the remainder, totaling about $500,000.

VIA was chosen for several reasons, Lynn Lunsford, spokesman for the FAA southwest region, said.

“One (reason) was that the people in Harlingen were prepared and VIA is known for having a professional staff,” Lunsford said. “They had their act together.”

A-GIS stands for airport geographic information system, while eALP stands for electronic airport layout plan, according to FAA documents.

Browning said using a satellite-based system will reduce costs and improve flight accuracy.

“Placing ground equipment all over the United States is very costly and plus maintaining that equipment is very costly,” Browning said.

Electronic copies of airport ground layouts will also allow easy access for FAA and local airport staff, Lunsford said.

“(The airport layout plan) determines everything that the FAA and the airport do,” Browning said.

Lunsford described hardcopy paper airport layout plans “as big as a queen-size bed” in some cases.

“By getting all these plans into one single useable format, it eliminates the need to do repetitive work in preparation for doing a project,” Lunsford added.

Browning also said that electronic mapping is more accurate and precise.

“(With electronic mapping,) every sign, every runway light out here is pinpointed exactly to its correct location and then (the FAA) puts this on a computer so they have a database that they can look at,” Browning said.

These new adjustments, Lunsford said, will likely save taxpayers a great deal of money and allow FAA and airport staff to share up-to-date information accurately.

Browning said passengers won’t likely notice a difference, except maybe slightly shorter flights and more efficiency.

“It’s the future of the FAA and air navigation,” Browning said. “There are highways in the sky right now and (pilots) have to follow these predetermined highways for the most part. When all of this gets done they can say, ‘OK, I’m leaving Harlingen and now I’m going straight to Dallas’ and they fly in a straight line, where they don’t do that today.”