Flight plan for fog delays

In a bid to reduce flight delays during the fog season, India’s civil aviation regulator DGCA has decreed that only airlines that have CAT IIIB Instrument Landing System equipped aircraft and trained pilots would be given slots before 10 am, reports Sidhartha Roy.

If you are planning to take a flight out of Delhi in the coming winter season, first check if your airline is equipped to fly in

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fog.

In a bid to reduce flight delays during the fog season, India’s civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has decreed that only airlines that have CAT IIIB Instrument Landing System (ILS) equipped aircraft and trained pilots would be given slots before 10 am.

The CAT III-B ILS helps aircraft to land in visibility as low as 50 metre but for that the pilot has to be CAT III-B trained and the aircraft should be equipped with the necessary equipment.

Airlines with not enough trained pilots or equipped aircraft will get a slot only after 10 am. “For this winter season, we have made an arrangement that only aircraft that are CAT III-B compliant would be allowed to fly before 10 am,” said Nasim Zaidi, the DGCA chief.

Every winter, fog causes long delays at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA).

Though the airport is equipped to handle flight operations in dense fog, there are never enough CAT III-B trained pilots to take off or land in such conditions.

Though every year most airlines claim that they have sufficient number of trained pilots and equipped aircraft, in reality very few actually fly during dense fog. This results in cascading delays.

Zaidi said the new arrangement will ensure that airlines unable to fly during fog are not given early morning slots.

This is not the only measure taken by the DGCA to reduce delays.

Recently, the aviation regulator instructed that aircraft not moving within five minutes of getting the green signal from the air traffic control, would be pushed back in the sequence and the next flight would be given the chance to fly.

It has also decreed that there shouldn’t be more than 30 departure slots in an hour and there should be four slots reserved for non-scheduled VIP or military flights.