Definition
Performance Based Navigation (PBN) is a method of area navigation in which an aircraft is required to meet specified performance standards for accuracy, integrity, continuity, and availability along a route, instrument procedure, or in a defined airspace. Rather than mandating a particular piece of equipment, PBN defines the navigation performance the aircraft must achieve, allowing any combination of avionics and sensors that can deliver that performance to be used.
Plain English
PBN means flying a route or procedure where the rules tell you how accurately you must navigate, not what equipment you must use. As long as your aircraft can hold the required level of precision, you are allowed to fly that route.
Context Anchor
Seen in instrument flying on published routes, departures, arrivals, approaches, and airspace requirements.
Derivation
The name describes the concept directly: navigation that is based on performance (how accurately the aircraft can navigate) rather than on the specific equipment installed. The shift in wording — from equipment-based rules to performance-based rules — is the whole point of the term.
Why Pilots Care
PBN procedures enable more direct routes, lower approach minimums at airports without traditional ground aids, and reduced dependence on aging VOR and NDB infrastructure.
Intuition Check
“Performance” does not mean engine power or how well the pilot is flying. Here it means the required accuracy, reliability, and alerting ability of the navigation system for that operation.
Example Sentence 1
The approach chart listed a PBN requirement, so the crew confirmed their aircraft was certified to the specified navigation accuracy before accepting the clearance.
Example Sentence 2
We filed the PBN-capable aircraft so we could use the RNP approach with lower weather minimums.