Proposed decommissioning of Innisfail non-directional beacon

Cassowary Coast Regional Council and Airservices Australia are proposing to decommission the Innisfail Non-Directional Beacon (NDB).

The issue

Decommissioning of the Innisfail NDB will result in withdrawal of the Innisfail NDB Approach and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Arrival procedures and may impact some instrument flight training operations.

Purpose

To consult aviation industry stakeholders in relation to the proposed decommissioning of Innisfail NDB.

Proposal

Innisfail NDB is over 40 years old and has reached the end of economic life. It does not form part of Australia’s Backup Navigation Network (BNN) and has only been retained in recent years for flight training purposes, and due to Innisfail aerodrome (YIFL) not having the required infrastructure to allow a straight in instrument approach.

In 2020, a runway aligned Required Navigation Performance (RNP) approach to YIFL runway (RWY) 32 was implemented, with a lower minimum descent height than the NDB approach, providing improved safety and reliability for approaches in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) conditions. Ground-based navigation aids at nearby Cairns Airport remain available for flight training purposes.

Decommissioning of the Innisfail NDB will result in the following changes to the Aeronautical Information Package (AIP):

• withdrawal of the YIFL NDB Approach and GNSS Arrival procedures
• minor change to Cairns DME/GNSS Arrival (to replace IFL NDB with a GNSS waypoint)
• minor change to ATS route V153 (to replace IFL NDB with a GNSS waypoint)
• other minor changes to AIP documentation and charts to remove reference to the aid.