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AAI’s contingency plan to ensure smooth air traffic
To avoid affecting aircraft movements, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has chalked out a contingency plan which involves creating an additional team of air
To avoid affecting aircraft movements, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has chalked out a contingency plan which involves creating an additional team of air traffic controllers (ATC) who will report to duty only after being home quarantined for five days on a rotational basis. This is to ensure that if any controller tests positive for Covid- 19, the home-quarantined set of controllers will be asked to work until the others clear the 14-day quarantine period.
AAI in Mumbai has also prepared an alternate ATC room at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) to be used if their current ATC complex needs to be sanitised if a staffer gets infected.
Sources at the Mumbai airport said AAI had set up the contingency plan a week ago.
On Saturday, all departures at New York and New Jersey airports had to be temporarily suspended after one of their controllers tested positive for Covid-19. A statement from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), US aviation authority, said it had contacted local health authorities and was developing a plan to quickly sanitise the affected areas.
The airport, however, resumed operations in some time. AAI has asked its manager-level officials to work in shifts to handle any emergency. A Delhi-based senior AAI official said, “At Mumbai, we have five batches with 50 controllers working at a time. However, due to less air traffic, we have reduced the size of these batches to 35 controllers per batch and have made a separate batch of 35 controllers. All batches work on a rotation basis. In case of an emergency due to Covid-19, we will use the batches which are instructed to be at home when they are off-duty, ensuring that air traffic services would not be affected.”
An AAI official based in Mumbai said AAI has also sensitised the controllers to help airlines save fuel.
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