Toulouse, France, 5th April 2022

Air Corsica, the flag carrier of the French insular region of Corsica, selected NAVBLUE’s RNP AR services to allow them to operate in diverse weather conditions while reducing their environmental footprint.

Required Navigation Performance with Authorization Required (RNP AR), is a Performance Based Navigation (PBN) specification based on satellite positioning system.

Authorizing a navigation accuracy from 0.3NM down to 0.1NM and turns after the final approach point, the RNP AR concept offers significant operational and safety benefits, positively impacting fuel consumption and pilot workload. 

Air Corsica, has performed the inaugural RNP AR APCH flight on Monday April 4th on flight XK773 from Paris Orly, to Runway 20 in Ajaccio Napoleon Bonaparte Airport (IATA: AJA, ICAO: LFKJ). NAVBLUE supported Air Corsica in obtaining their Operational Approval, delivering the ops package and Flight Operations Safety Assessment (FOSA). In addition, NAVBLUE provided training for pilots with an RNP AR e-learning and a FFS (Full Flight Simulator) training.

RNP AR on runway 20 at Ajaccio is an instrument procedure that follows a similar trajectory as the visual approach, allowing Air Corsica to operate in more diverse weather conditions. 

Compared to existing circle to land instrument procedures the RNP AR provides several benefits:

• Greatly improves the published minimas
• Enhances safety by providing a fully managed and repeatable procedure
• Reduces distance flown (by 10 nautical miles), and consequently fuel burn and emissions at each flight.

Overall by using RNP AR, Air Corsica significantly reduces the likeliness of weather diversions, while improving the efficiency and environmental impact of its operations.

NAVBLUE had collaborated with the French authorities to produce the original procedure design of the RNP AR APCH procedure into Ajaccio.

“NAVBLUE is proud to have supported Air Corsica with its adoption of RNP AR operations”, said Fabrice Hamel, CEO at NAVBLUE. “With the growing number of RNP AR procedures around the world, NAVBLUE has unmatched experience assisting airline operators obtain the necessary approvals from regulatory authorities.”

About Air Corsica: Air Corsica has always wanted to sustainably anchor social, societal and environmental themes within its company. Societal and environmental issues are more than ever at the heart of business development strategy, and are now part of the selection criteria motivating consumer purchases.

Air Corsica has set itself the goal of developing its international network in summer 2022 while consolidating its local and national market.

This is why, starting this year, the company is going to strengthen their actions in favor of sustainable development and make them known in order to improve its image as a virtuous company and attract new passengers.To reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the atmosphere, Air Corsica is committed to implementing a modern and ambitious policy, based on the modernization of its air fleet, the reduction of general fuel consumption and aircraft weight. Air Corsica undertakes to finance projects to offset its CO2 emissions. The synergy between these actions will limit our carbon footprint and reduce our CO2 emissions by 16% per seat/km by 2025, compared to 2019.

About NAVBLUE: NAVBLUE is an Airbus Services company, wholly owned by Airbus, and dedicated to Flight Operations & Air Traffic Management Solutions. NAVBLUE provides products and services, and supports both civil and military environments, on the ground and onboard any aircraft and offers expertise in a range of areas, including digital cockpit operations, Operations Control Centre (OCC) systems, Flight Ops Engineering, Performance Based Navigation (PBN) and Air Traffic Management (ATM). NAVBLUE employs 460 employees spread across the world, with offices in Canada, France, Sweden, Thailand, UK and US and representatives in several other countries across the globe. More info at: www.navblue.aero