ESSP and London Southend Airport have recently signed an EGNOS Working Agreement (EWA) as a key step for the implementation of EGNOS-based approach procedures (LPV procedures) to be used at this aerodrome.

The signature was sealed last January 9th by ESSP SAS and London Southend Airport.

The Airport ‘s  Operations Director David Lister commented:
“The introduction of LPV approaches, complementing the LNAV and VNAV approaches shortly to be introduced at London Southend means that the airport will have a range of instrument approaches available to operators, assuring continued operations in all but the most severe weather conditions, even if the Category I ILS is out of service.”

EGNOS provides an alternative to ILS CAT I, offering similar performance, and increasing safety by allowing Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) approaches at difficult locations or under meteorological conditions where previously such approaches were not possible due to safety concerns, and is free of charge.

EGNOS procedures are already in place in many European airports.
Alderney Airport in the Channel Islands is the pioneer in the UK.

London Southend Airport
London Southend Airport handled over 31,000 movements last year, ranging in size from light aircraft up to B757. 970,167 passengers passed through the Essex airport between January and December 2013, making it the busiest year in the history of the airport.

EGNOS :
The European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service, is a Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS) that improves the accuracy and provides integrity to the GPS Signal over most of Europe.The EC owns and manages the EGNOS system. ESA is the EGNOS design agent under a delegation agreement with the EC. Similar services are provided in North America by the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), in Japan by the Multifunctional Satellite Augmentation System (MSAS) and in India by the GAGAN System. Other similar Satellite Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS) are under study or development in other regions of the world. It is Europe's first venture into satellite navigation and a major stepping-stone towards Galileo, Europe's own global satellite navigation system for the future. Starting from 1st January 2014, EGNOS will be managed by the European GNSS Agency (GSA).

LPV :
LPV is a non-precision approach. It stands for Localizer Performance with Vertical Guidance and typically takes you down to 200-250 ft decision height.

IFR Flight Rules :
Rules and regulations established by the FAA to govern flight under conditions in which flight by outside visual reference is not safe.
IFR flight depends upon flying by reference to instruments in the flight deck, and navigation is accomplished by reference to electronic signals (source: Wikipedia).

LNAV :
Lateral navigation (LNAV) refers to navigating over a ground track with guidance from an electronic device which gives the pilot (or autopilot) error indications in the lateral direction only and not in the vertical direction (source: Wikipedia).

VNAV :
Vertical NAVigation is an autoflight function which directs the vertical movement of an aircraft (i.e. gains or losses in its altitude).
If used in the cruise, VNAV causes an aircraft to climb or descend according to a vertical elements of a pre-programmed flight management system's flight plan (source Wikipedia).