HOW WAS THE BLUE BAY PROCEDURE WORKED OUT?
The landing procedure on runway 22 consisted of a standard circling approach – an ILS let down on runway 04 followed by a visual manoeuvring with prescribed tracks: opening to the right then left-hand downwind and then final turn to the left. The minima for this procedure was for Category C of 1120 feet and 3700 meters. It is evident that in these conditions that no takeoff on runway 22 could take place as long as an aircraft was in procedure and was not completely touched down. Indeed, it was necessary to take into account the possibility of a missed approach before being able to authorize the following plane to carry out the procedure. Consequently the landing rate was limited to one airplane every 10 minutes: 6 arrivals per hour. With the average demand at the Nice airport being between 20 – 24 arrivals per hour, this provoked an important disorganization of air traffic with repercussions on the adjacent En Route Control Centres (Aix-en-Provence and Milan) and the neighbouring airpo
