rotorfan : excellent remarks. but what is currently done in the military ( e.g UAVs) cannot be duplicated, and by far, for passenger transport .
Heathrow Harry : Bali : good example among many .
but to automate approaches you need some ground infrastructure . in Bali on that runway there is no ILS, so what do we do to go there in a more automated way ?
landing systems equivalent to CAT3B at the end of every runway at every airport ?
What will be the cost of that ? I think in countries like Indonesia with over 200 airports , it is definitively cheaper to leave 2 guys up front ,( especially if the second one is paying to be there
)