Originally Posted by
almost professional
Never had anything but Cat I on 09, ILS is capable but not lighting
I don't know if anyone knows if there are any plans for Cat III on 09. I wonder if the airport sees little benefit from it. I suppose the number of occasions when an operator is unable to land on RW27 in the event of Cat III weather conditions are very few, The main issue would be tailwind with aircraft probably restricted to a maximum tailwind component of 10kts or less, but generally winds are light in foggy conditions so this isn't an issue.
Also the RW09 ILS (ILS Classification II/D/2 I believe) allows Lower than Standard Category I operations. I don't know whether this has been utilised, but I believe it gives an RVR minima of 400m, although I stand to be corrected on that.
I did wonder at the time of the major runway surfacing project whether that would be an opportunity to upgrade the lighting on RW09 - notably the need for TDZ lights, but it obviously didn't happen then. In the context of this discussion, Birmingham airport has been without even Cat I ILS on RW33 for over 6 months now and will remain so 'until further notice' apparently, but I'm not aware of there being any major disruptions over this winter so far?