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Business News/ Companies / News/  Aviation regulator’s hazy rules may be the reason for flight delays during fog
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Aviation regulator’s hazy rules may be the reason for flight delays during fog

Airlines refusal to spend on expensive pilot training, lack of equipments are key reasons for routine disruption of flights during fog
  • DGCA maintains that there’s a large enough pool of pilots in the industry to operate during fog season
  • CAT IIIB is a condition when visibility for landing and taking-off an aircraft ranges from 50-174 metres. (HT)Premium
    CAT IIIB is a condition when visibility for landing and taking-off an aircraft ranges from 50-174 metres. (HT)

    NEW DELHI : The refusal by cash-strapped airlines to spend on expensive pilot training, as well as the lack of equipment at airports are key reasons for the routine disruption of hundreds of flights whenever there is winter fog in north India, aviation experts and officials said.

    The directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) says airlines must train an “adequate" number of pilots to land in fog, but does not give a number. This is used by some airlines to avoid high training costs, an airline official said, requesting anonymity.

    Training programmes, such as the CAT IIIB certification course for flight crew, can cost up to 7 lakh per pilot. The CAT IIIB instrument landing system allows aircraft to land with a runway visual range of up to 50m and a decision height of 15m. Airlines feel the pinch not only because of the expense of training pilots but also because of the absence of pilots during the week-long programme, which hurts flight operations.

    They get away with it because they are not obliged to pay passengers compensation.

    “Domestic passengers are virtually uncompensated in India, unlike in Europe or the US, in the event of flight cancellations and delays," said aviation analyst Devesh Agarwal, editor of the website BangaloreAviation.com. “It is simple cost-benefit economics. Airlines may find it more beneficial to cancel or delay flights instead of employing a high number of CAT IIIB-compliant crew, as thick fog conditions don’t stretch beyond a couple of weeks during a year," he added.

    CAT IIIB is a condition when visibility for landing and taking-off an aircraft ranges from 50-174 metres. In CAT IIIA, visibility ranges between 175 and 299 metres.

    Only pilots with 2,500 hours of flying experience can undergo CAT IIIB training. Besides, the pilot in command and their deputy have to undergo the training programme together on simulators, which creates additional hurdles for airlines operations.

    “As things stand there’s a dearth of pilots, which has seen operations of certain airlines recently being impacted," Agarwal said.

    The training period effectively works out to be longer than a week, according to another expert.

    “CAT IIIB training can be completed in a week’s time. Pilots will have to undergo simulator sessions, where they have to do a certain number of landings and take-offs under certain low visibility scenarios to qualify," said Ashwani Acharya, business head at Noida-based CAE Simulation Training Pvt. Ltd, which trains pilots.

    “Realization that such training should be seen as an investment and not a cost has started seeping in among all carriers."

    On 30 December, at least 500 flights were disrupted at Delhi airport, with India’s capital wrapped in fog. Despite the airport being certified to carry out low-visibility operations, thousands of passengers were left stranded at its terminals.

    “Flight cancellations could have been significantly less if additional airline crew were CAT IIIB compliant," said a Delhi International Airport Ltd official.

    An IndiGo spokesperson said that 80% of the airline’s pilots are Cat IIIB trained. “At our current growth rate, we release 40 captains every month and there is a certain lead time before a newly released pilot is Cat IIIB qualified," the spokesperson said, adding that the dearth of CAT III B-compliant airports contributes to fog-related disruptions from Delhi.

    “As more passengers switch to air travel in India, there is a need to increase the number of airports equipped to handle flights during fog/smog, especially in the northern and northeastern belt (which are more affected by fog than other regions)," said an IndiGo spokesperson.

    Delhi, Amritsar, Lucknow, Jaipur and Kolkata are CAT III compliant while Bagdogra is CAT II compliant. The rest of Indian airports are only CAT I compliant, said the IndiGo spokesperson, adding that other airports too face low visibility problems that disrupt traffic to Delhi.

    A spokesperson for Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, said the airline has sufficient flight crew qualified for CAT IIIB operations and that its operations have not suffered because of lack of qualified crew.

    Spokespersons of SpiceJet, GoAir, AirAsia India, and Air India didn’t respond to Mint’s queries till press time.

    The DGCA maintains that there’s a large enough pool of pilots in the industry to operate during fog season.

    “Disruptions are caused mainly due to reduced capacity in operations during fog period, which happen mainly due to protection of critical and sensitive areas of the instrumental landing system) during CAT III operations," said a senior DGCA official.

    The number of CAT IIIB certified pilots domestically is more than 3,600, including 2,000 pilots in command and 1,600 co-pilots.

    “There is no shortage of pilots to cover operations during fog. Disruptions are caused mainly because of reduced capacity in operations during fog, which happen mainly because of protection of critical and sensitive areas of the instrumental landing system during CAT III operations," said a senior DGCA official. This results in a longer holding period and reduced departures, as the frequency of aircraft operations comes down, the official said.

    An instrument landing system works by sending radio waves downrange from the runway end, with pilots intercepting and using the waves to guide the aircraft onto the runway.

    The DGCA figures may be correct but the number of CAT IIIB certified pilots are skewed towards certain airlines, said one of the airline officials mentioned above.

    Smaller aircraft such as the ATR and Bombardier Q-400, which are operated by SpiceJet and IndiGo, are not CAT IIIB certified and are hence non-operational during fog, further reducing capacity, said the DGCA official mentioned above.

    Some Boeing 737 planes, which were earlier with Jet Airways were not CAT IIIB compliant, said an industry expert, who didn’t want to be named.

    Airlines avoid flying these planes to Delhi and other fog-prone north Indian cities during winters, said the expert.

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    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Rhik Kundu
    Rhik writes about the Indian economy and its crucial indicators. He is constantly navigating corporates, decoding policies, and dabbling with everything in between.
    Catch all the Corporate news and Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.
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    Published: 09 Jan 2020, 05:46 PM IST
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