Aviation: Traffic Control: Fighting Fog

Aviation

India Today, January 11, 1999
Jan 11, 1999

TRAFFIC CONTROL
Fighting Fog

Besides inconveniencing the public, government dithering on acquiring an advanced radar for Delhi is costing the airlines dear.

By Sayantan Chakravarty

If the fog won't get you, the air traffic control (ATC) will. This past fortnight, Delhi has seen little other than such truths flying about its skies. With dense fog during the peak flying hours, over 500 domestic flights to and from the capital had to be cancelled and an equal number delayed. Another 500 international flights had to be rescheduled for reasons that were not entirely foggy.

When the sun crept out it wasn't much help as airline schedules were thrown into disarray. The daily rhythmic cycle of flights was affected and with each extra flying hour that was necessitated by the rescheduling, the airlines' operational costs soared to new highs. The combined daily losses of Indian Airlines, Jet Airways and Sahara Airlines, for instance, were in the order of Rs 5-6 crore.

Skeptics say the CAT III is too expensive and even airports like Tokyo and Singapore do not have it.

The inconvenience caused to the public was immense, with passengers vowing in vain never to fly to or from Delhi again. Airport authorities had a tough time trying to grapple with the chaotic situation. Between 8 p.m. on December 28 and 8 a.m. the next morning, only four out of 22 international flights landed on time. Fourteen were rescheduled to the following afternoon, two got diverted and two others were grounded. The rescheduling meant that the parking bay was choc-a-bloc; there were 20 jumbos lined up to fly on most days instead of the usual departure capacity of four. In the domestic sector, the most gruelling day was December 23. Only 20 of the 35 Indian Airlines flights scheduled for departure could take off -- only two left on time -- while 22 of the 33 scheduled arrivals were cancelled -- none arrived on time. "It was an exasperating fortnight," says Nagar V. Sridhar, airport director.

Exasperating but avoidable. As part of a modernisation programme at the Delhi and Mumbai airports, the Government had floated tenders for new ATC systems in 1991. In March 1993, US-based Raytheon was assigned the task of installing advanced ATC radar systems in the two metros by October 1995.

Though Raytheon put up radars in both the places, their efficiency is a subject of much debate. Apart from software glitches, there is a raging dispute between the radar supplier and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) over the instrument landing system (ILS). While Raytheon claims it has supplied the more advanced Cat-II system -- which allows aircraft to land effortlessly in visibility as low as 400 ft -- AAI contends that the system is far below expectations and is no better than the Cat-I. "The new ATC has no facility to improve landing in bad weather," says Brijendra Shekhar, general secretary, Air Traffic Controllers' Guild (India). "Hence all the delayed landings and diversions over the fortnight."

Besides ILS, the current system is considered to be wanting in other ways too: low quality head-sets and flight progress strips, a non-functional surface movement radar and poor radio volume. There is also the fear of security threats from potential saboteurs at the modern consoles.

Under pressure from the guild, the Government has now decided to go in for the Cat-III system by the end of next year. The Cat III allows aircraft to land at zero visibility in fog-bound conditions. But before such a system can be installed, ancillary facilities like aviation ground lights must first be set up. To make the radar more efficacious, the area around runways will have to be cleared as ground obstacles like poles and trees affect visibility.

The Cat-III system would also mean advanced training for pilots because unlike in the cases of Cat I and II, the aircraft would have to glide towards the ground without any visual reference to the runway. Apart from the high cost of training pilots, Cat III will require that domestic airlines acquaint themselves with expensive equipment to calibrate the information from the ground.

This entire radar package would mean an expense of Rs 450 crore -- some Rs 100 crore more than the amount earlier earmarked for the systems. Skeptics in the Civil Aviation Ministry maintain that even airports like Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore do not have Cat III equipment. The fact is the weather "packs up" in these places for not more than two or three weeks each year. Says one airport official: "Tokyo not having Cat III does not mean Delhi shouldn't acquire one." More dithering on the part of the Government will only push the costs up. Clearly, it has only two options: either cough up the amount and get the Cat-III going or rob the airlines of their much-needed profits and the passengers of their peace of mind Even risk their lives.

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