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Grounded planes and stranded passengers have been a common sight at airports in Delhi and north India during winter for several years.
While disruptions depend on the severity of fog, Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport says it is now geared up to minimise the fog impact through better co-ordination with airlines.
“The biggest challenge for us will be to manage morning base departures and handle passengers in case of disruption. As per regulations, while aircraft will be able to land in visibility of 50 metres, no plane will take off until visibility is 125 metres. We have 60-65 planes parked in Delhi, which takeoff between 5 am and 8 am. In case there is a shutdown, the terminals can get crowded as we could have as many as 8,000 passengers waiting for departures,” said Marcel Hungerbuehler, chief operation officer of Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL).
The airport has three runways, which can simultaneously handle 78 aircraft movement each hour. It is also the busiest airport in the country with about 850-900 movements daily and the only one to be equipped with CAT IIIB instrument landing system, which enables landing in 50 metre visibility.
"The most important thing we have done at the Delhi airport is setting up of the airport collaborative decision making procedure. We are the only airport in India to implement this and it has been a big advantage. It has representatives of ATC, domestic airlines and DIAL and collectively pre assign departure slots when ever the weather clears up. Since departures can get piled up in case of closure, airlines inform the priority and sequence for its own departures and accordingly ATC assigns engine startup and aircraft push back time. This is a transparent process and it eases VHF radio congestion and helps in reduce fuel burn on the ground,'' he added.
"We are expecting low visibility operation to begin by Tuesday or Wednesday. The lowest visibility we have had till now is 600 metres on one of the runways,'' he said.
In the last few years, Delhi has seen the thickest fog formations during December 22-January 1 with runway visibility dropping below 50 metres and resulting in suspension of airport operations.
Last winter, Delhi airport saw visibility drop below 50 metres for a total of 90 minutes. Low-visibility operations under CAT IIIB conditions (visibility ranging from 50-175 metres) were carried out for 56 hours between December 15 and February 15.
Both aircraft and pilots need to be rated for low visibility operations. In January, DGCA had penalised three airlines by withdrawing six landing slots at Delhi airport for not using pilots and planes equipped to land in foggy conditions.
In the last three years, 289 fog-related light diversions took place from Delhi prompting the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation to draw up an action plan.
This includes improved flight planning and installation of CAT IIIB facilities in Jaipur and Lucknow which serve as diversion airfields for Delhi. The facilities, however, will be operational only in next year.
Arrival procedures have been streamlined and pilots have been instructed not to hold over Delhi airport waiting for improvement in weather. This instruction has been put in place in January after an Air India aircraft diverted and landed in Jaipur with almost zero fuel. Diverted flights will get priority in arrival upon resumption of operations.
Hungerbuehler says boarding is carried only on the basis of latest weather updates and forecasts. Some times departures get held up in Delhi because destination weather is bad.
While disruptions depend on the severity of fog, Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport says it is now geared up to minimise the fog impact through better co-ordination with airlines.
“The biggest challenge for us will be to manage morning base departures and handle passengers in case of disruption. As per regulations, while aircraft will be able to land in visibility of 50 metres, no plane will take off until visibility is 125 metres. We have 60-65 planes parked in Delhi, which takeoff between 5 am and 8 am. In case there is a shutdown, the terminals can get crowded as we could have as many as 8,000 passengers waiting for departures,” said Marcel Hungerbuehler, chief operation officer of Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL).
The airport has three runways, which can simultaneously handle 78 aircraft movement each hour. It is also the busiest airport in the country with about 850-900 movements daily and the only one to be equipped with CAT IIIB instrument landing system, which enables landing in 50 metre visibility.
"The most important thing we have done at the Delhi airport is setting up of the airport collaborative decision making procedure. We are the only airport in India to implement this and it has been a big advantage. It has representatives of ATC, domestic airlines and DIAL and collectively pre assign departure slots when ever the weather clears up. Since departures can get piled up in case of closure, airlines inform the priority and sequence for its own departures and accordingly ATC assigns engine startup and aircraft push back time. This is a transparent process and it eases VHF radio congestion and helps in reduce fuel burn on the ground,'' he added.
"We are expecting low visibility operation to begin by Tuesday or Wednesday. The lowest visibility we have had till now is 600 metres on one of the runways,'' he said.
In the last few years, Delhi has seen the thickest fog formations during December 22-January 1 with runway visibility dropping below 50 metres and resulting in suspension of airport operations.
Last winter, Delhi airport saw visibility drop below 50 metres for a total of 90 minutes. Low-visibility operations under CAT IIIB conditions (visibility ranging from 50-175 metres) were carried out for 56 hours between December 15 and February 15.
Both aircraft and pilots need to be rated for low visibility operations. In January, DGCA had penalised three airlines by withdrawing six landing slots at Delhi airport for not using pilots and planes equipped to land in foggy conditions.
In the last three years, 289 fog-related light diversions took place from Delhi prompting the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation to draw up an action plan.
This includes improved flight planning and installation of CAT IIIB facilities in Jaipur and Lucknow which serve as diversion airfields for Delhi. The facilities, however, will be operational only in next year.
Arrival procedures have been streamlined and pilots have been instructed not to hold over Delhi airport waiting for improvement in weather. This instruction has been put in place in January after an Air India aircraft diverted and landed in Jaipur with almost zero fuel. Diverted flights will get priority in arrival upon resumption of operations.
Hungerbuehler says boarding is carried only on the basis of latest weather updates and forecasts. Some times departures get held up in Delhi because destination weather is bad.
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