Due to a drop in European traffic, calibration flights for the spring session will take place during the day and not at night, to avoid disturbing residents during the night. The flights will take place on Monday 6 April and Tuesday 7 April.
International civil aviation standards require the functioning and accuracy of airport navigation aids to be regularly checked. A specially equipped aircraft is therefore used to perform a series of approaches. In Switzerland, calibration flights testing Instrument Landing Systems (ILS) are carried out under the supervision of Skyguide, the authority responsible for airspace surveillance.
Normally, these flights take place at night as they disrupt air traffic. In November 2019, Genève Aéroport sent a request to authorise these flights to the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA), which was accepted. The spring session was scheduled to take place at night from 22 April.
The significant drop in traffic at the European level due to the ongoing Covid-19 epidemic enables these tests to be rescheduled for the daytime, avoiding disturbance to residents at night.
The calibration flights will therefore take place on Monday 6 April and Tuesday 7 April from 8:30 to 15:00. If necessary or in the case of adverse weather conditions, the measurement flights will be held on the back-up dates, namely 8 and 9 April.