China Eastern Airlines Demonstrates RNP into Lijiang

A China Eastern Airlines B-737-700 completed a flight into China's Lijiang Airport last week to validate the capability and benefits of RNP (required navigation performance).

China Eastern has been working with Boeing and its Jeppesen subsidiary, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), and the FAA, to introduce the technology into its operations. Jeppesen designed the RNP arrival and departure procedures for Lijiang, which is situated in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains.

Jeppesen recently became the second company, following Naverus, to be qualified as an approved FAA RNP consultant.

RNP uses global-positioning satellites and onboard flight-management systems to enable the greater precision and pilot alerting requirements needed for RNP operations, which can offer particular operational benefits when used with RNAV (area navigation) at airports with challenging obstacles, such as mountains.  But RNP and RNAV have the potential to significantly save fuel – and even add airspace capacity – by opening additional flight paths, virtually anywhere.  Other efficiencies can be gained by combining RNAV/RNP with CDAs (controlled descent arrivals), and other NextGen technologies.

Boeing, the CAAC and Air China first demonstrated their use of RNP at Tibet's Gongga Airport that serves its capital, Lhasa, in 2004. They also completed a B-737-700 RNP flight into Tibet's Linzhi Airport last year. 05-20-2008.

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