Cargo airline FedEx has received an exemption from the US FAA that allows the carrier to use a combination of vision enhancing equipment, procedures and training to expand foul-weather access to US airports.

The 24 December 2009 approval, the first of its kind for the airline industry, permits FedEx to begin performing instrument landing system (ILS) approaches with ground visibility as low as 305m (1,000ft), significantly less than the usual 732m (2,400ft) runway visual range (RVR) needed to start a category 1 ILS, a horizontal and vertically guided approach for which the pilots must see the runway environment at 61m (200ft) in order to continue in for landing.

The RVR prerequisite at the start of the procedure, widely referred to as the “approach ban”, can cause aircraft to perform costly diversions to alternate airports even if visibility at the end of the approa

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