Redesign parking bays to save time, money: Experts

BUSINESS STANDARD OPEN SKY SUMMIT '07

In order to ensure air traffic management of global standards, private airlines have called for redesigning parking bays and increasing the parking capacity of the airports adjoining the metros.

The experts who took part in the "Open Sky Summit" today stressed the need to increase the parking capacity of the airports which handle flights diverted from the metros. Experts said around 168 tonne of air turbine fuel was wasted every day due to the landing and take-off delays at Delhi Airport alone. This caused a loss of Rs 70 lakh to the airlines, experts said.

Captain Shekhawat of Spicejet said the government should immediately look at redesigning the parking bays and introduce more entry and exit points on the main runways.

"As an immediate step, more entry and exit points on the runways at Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and other busy airports are needed. This will decrease congestion," Shekhawat said. Delhi Airport handles around 693 aircraft every day.

Planes waiting to land or take off from Delhi have to wait around 40 minutes, leading to extra fuel consumption. "This lag can be reduced drastically with better runways and parking bays," Shekhawat said.