DGCA conducts India's first satellite-guided jet landing using Gagan system

Key facts

• The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) successfully conducted the first satellite-based landing system (SLS) approach on a jet engine aircraft in India.
• The flight was operated on an IndiGo Airbus A320 at Udaipur airport using the GPS-aided geo augmented navigation (Gagan) system.
• Gagan is a Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS) jointly developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Airport Authority of India (AAI).
• The landing utilised a localiser performance with vertical guidance (LPV) approach, which provides precise horizontal and vertical guidance without relying on ground-based instrument landing systems (ILS).
• This achievement positions India as one of the few countries globally with its own SBAS capability, enhancing safety at secondary airports lacking expensive conventional precision landing systems.