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Low Visibility Procedures

At BIKF, Low Visibility Procedures (LVP) come into effect when either the ceiling or the touchdown RVR have reduced to the certain point that ground visibility is affected. LVP is enacted in the following phases:

  1. Preparation Phase: When the touchdown RVR reaches 800m and/or the ceiling is 300ft or less. At this point:
    • Keflavik Tower and Keflavik Approach shall coordinate to revise the runway configuration so that arrivals land on either RWY 10 or 19, as only those two runways are CAT II equipped.
      • Departures may continue on RWY 01 or 28.
      • ATC may not give conditional taxi instructions.
      • Increased separation (at least +2nm) should be given between all departures and arrivals.
  2. Activation Phase: When the touchdown RVR is less than 550m and/or the ceiling is 200ft or less.
    • When RVR is less than 550m, only one aircraft is allowed to move in the maneuvering area at once. This will severely limit airport capacity, to around 10 movements per hour.
  3. Deactivation Phase: When touchdown RVR increases to 550m or more and ceiling is higher than 200ft.
    • TWR & APP should coordinate to determine if the runway configuration should be revised when the visibility has improved.
  4. Termination Phase: When touchdown RVR is 800m or more, the ceiling is above 200ft, and the conditions are expected to continue to improve. At this point, LVP is no longer in effect, and normal operations may resume.

The touchdown RVR for each runway may be found at the BIKF AWOS (Automated Weather Observing System) webpage, here: awos.kefairport.is/Map.aspx

When LVP is in effect, Keflavik Ground & Tower should notify all aircraft upon first contact that low visibility procedures are in effect. The following text should also be added to the ATIS: “LOW VISIBILITY PROCEDURES IN EFFECT.”

The Euroscope ATIS generator set up in the sector file should do this automatically.

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