Aviation can significantly benefit from satellite navigation signals since they are globally available and enable a uniform quality of navigation throughout all phases of flight.

Traditionally aviation relies on costly ground radio navigation systems near airports such as ILS (Instrument Landing System) for landing operations. EGNOS has been designed to answer aviation needs for secured landing approaches with the EGNOS Safety of Life service.

This service guarantees the position given by the receiver to be inside certain boundaries and encompasses an integrity function which consists in a warning message sent to the pilot within 6 seconds in case of malfunction. It can therefore be used for en-route navigation and allows for IFR-like (Instrument flight rules) operation in non ILS equipped airports.

By reducing the angle of approach and bringing a better lateral guidance, EGNOS may increase airports' capacity and avoids the installation of expensive land based navigation aids.

Aircrafts can rely on this technology even for intercontinental journeys, as EGNOS is completely interoperable with other Satellite Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS) such as the US WAAS, the Japanese MSAS or the forthcoming Indian GAGAN. Despite its relative small size with around 90 000 GNSS units shipped in 2010, the aviation sector has a significant productivity impact on the whole European private sector.

