Since May 1971, Munich-Riem Airport has had improved radio-electrical and optical landing aids that allow bad weather landings after operating level II. That means: Landings are still possible if the cloud base is at least 30 meters and visibility is 400 meters. These values are exactly half below those of operating level I, according to which landings are permitted with at least 60 meters of the cloud base and 800 meters of visibility. In addition to Munich, the airports in Hamburg, Cologne, Hanover, Düsseldorf and Nuremberg are also approved for operating level II these days. However, many airports are not satisfied with the low minimum conditions of operating level II: All over the world, efforts are underway to obtain approval for operating levels III a and III b. While operating level III a still stipulates a visibility of 200 meters, landings according to level III b require a visibility of only 50 meters. But that's not all: Today it is already certain that the end of this development will be fully automatic landing.

Landings even under very bad weather conditions - that means a further increase in regularity in air traffic.

This becomes quite obvious when you think about the fact that even with low-hanging clouds and the slightest visibility, aircraft do not have to fly to an alternate airport, but can land at their destination as planned. Passengers who have planned their flight from Hamburg to Munich in such a way that they arrive in the Bavarian capital at 4 p.m. can therefore rely on arriving at this point in time, despite the most unfavorable weather conditions. Landing at an alternate airport, the inconvenient transport to the destination, the loss of time associated with it, missed appointments - all of this is no longer necessary due to the possibility of landing in bad weather.

What are radio electrical and optical landing aids?

First the radio-electric landing aids, the instrument landing system. It consists of a landing course transmitter, a glide slope transmitter and two marker transmitters set up at a certain distance from the runway touchdown area. When approaching the aircraft, the pilot receives precise information about the landing course to be observed, the specified reduction in altitude and - when overflighting the marker transmitter - the distance to the runway via appropriate display devices in the aircraft. These facilities enable him to fly to the touchdown zone area of the runway with the greatest accuracy, even in poor visibility. Optical landing aids are to be understood as the system of the lighting systems, i.e. a large number of different colored headlights set up in a certain arrangement. The lighting systems, which complement the radio-electric landing aids, show the pilot the position of the runway. Even in poor visibility, it recognizes from a great distance how the approach baseline - that is, the extended center line of the runway - runs. They also show him the beginning of the touchdown area, the center line and the side boundary of the runway and the length of the available landing distance. The lighting system enables the pilot to orientate himself much better and more easily to the center of the runway.