A growing number of domestic and international travelers, rise in frequency of daily flights and an increasing thrust for safety and accuracy. All these combined calls for a reliable and precise air traffic control system, taken care of by Air Traffic Services (ATS).
Delhi's ATS, which works round the clock, manages over 1,100 flights daily. The traffic is growing every year which poses a test for the staff. With proper work management, advanced technology, training and commitment, they are able to cope with the challenge.
"The kind of phenomenal growth which we have had in the civil aviation sector, there are large number of aircraft movements in the air space now. This is going to be quite a concern in future, particularly in the next five years," said Chairman Airports Authority of India, S Raheja."
"In the capacity of air space itself will be constraint. The solution is the optimum and efficient use of air space, besides of course safety. And the added advantage which we get by adopting optimization of airspace is that you can reap environmental benefits like CO2 emissions and all," added Raheja.
The growth in aviation sector is continuous and sustained in a strong economy like India. To keep up with the rising demand and to provide safe and efficient services, Delhi's Air Traffic Management (ATM) department has introduced various capacity measures from time to time.
As a result, despite being the busiest airport in India, the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi has maintained the best On Time Performance, not only in India, but also enjoys a global rank. The runways too have been operating on mixed mode since June 2012, and arriving and departing flights are allocated the runway available closest to their terminal.
The new ATS building being developed, which is expected to be operational by the end of 2016, will have Independence Parallel Approaches with enhanced Approach Control Service involving Feeder and Time Based Approach and Arrival / Departure manager.
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The ATM department will have access to advanced capabilities in automation and communication systems, which are being installed at the new facility.
"As you may be aware that traffic in 2015 was approximately about 950 movements (everyday) at this airport which has grown over 1100 flights per day. To cater to that need, taking to consideration the safety what we have done is we have sectors within the controllers control. We have made smaller sectors," said GM ATM IGI Airport, A K Bhardwaj.
"A controller let us say was controlling a larger area has gone up to half now. And the number of aircrafts he was controlling let us he was controlling 20 aircrafts which has been reduced to ten. So this way we have enhanced the safety by opening more sectors in the area controller and in the approach control also we have divided the responsibility from single controller to 2-3 controllers, depending upon the requirement. So lot of safety has been enhanced," added A K Bhardwaj.
Enhancement of technology and communication at the Delhi airport will further enhance the capabilities of traffic controllers, who will be able to match top ATS personnel around the world.