Inverness Airport ’s £1.3 million Instrument Landing System will become operational today, Thursday 8 July.

ILS is a precision landing aid allows aircraft to follow a beam aligned with the runway on their approach for landing and enables them to descend to a lower height before making the decision to land or not.

The ILS at Inverness will reduce the number of flights cancelled or diverted due to poor weather and offer greater flight reliability to passengers and airlines using the airport.

The activation of the ILS will also enable a further 150 metres of runway to be used at Inverness, extending the current usable runway length from 1,660 metres to almost 1,820 metres.

The system was installed at Inverness for HIAL by National Air Traffic Services as part of a programme of navigation aid improvements that included an ILS at Kirkwall Airport and localisers at Stornoway Airport . Both the Kirkwall and Stornoway systems have already been activated.

Paul Clarkson, HIAL’s General Manager Operations said: “We are delighted that the Inverness ILS is now coming on stream as it offers significant benefits to our airline customers and to passengers travelling via the airport. Since the closure of the Mid Coull Road in June we have finalised training and procedural matters to bring the system into operation as soon as practicable.

“We recently activated the ILS at Kirkwall and it has already allowed flights to land safely in poor weather that would previously have been diverted. The Inverness system will bring similar benefits to the airport and improve flight reliability.

“This two-year programme of navigation aid upgrades has been a major project and National Air Traffic Services has provided valuable expertise to ensure that all the systems perform to regulatory requirements,” said Mr Clarkson.

Colin Raper, Head of Airport Engineering Support for NATS, said: “NATS were delighted to be awarded the contracts for Inverness, Kirkwall and Stornoway, allowing us to further develop our good relationship with HIAL. The success of these projects was due to the great co-operation between NATS, HIAL and local contractors.”

During the year ending 31 March 2004, Inverness Airport handled 484,000 passengers and 32,500 individual aircraft movements. Year on year passenger growth at the airport is currently running at almost 19%. The airport recorded its busiest day ever for passenger movements on Saturday 3 July 2004, handling 2,500 passengers on scheduled and charter flights.

ENDS