Most airlines OK with fog

Air travellers can thank the weather gods for not letting the fog envelop the country's airports, especially Delhi airport, which is the most affected year after year.

Had the fog been as dense as that of the previous years, there is little doubt that the chaos – delayed and cancelled flights and hapless passengers – would find an encore.

The Delhi airport has been bearing the brunt despite being equipped with Category III B instrument landing system, which is meant to facilitate aircraft landing and take-off in low visibility.

The reasons are the airlines are not investing enough either in training their pilots to fly in fog or upgrading their aircraft for CAT II, CAT III A and CAT III B landing systems.

There is pure – and cold – business sense behind it. The loss suffered owing to cancellation and rescheduling of flights every winter – including arranging accommodation of passengers in certain cases – is much less than the expenditure on training.

"The loss incurred on cancelling a two-and-a-half-hour flight due to fog is at Rs 1.87 lakh to Rs 2 lakh," said an airline executive.

But the cost of fitting an aircraft with CAT III A and CAT III B equipment would cost an airline anywhere between Rs 46 to Rs 55 crore. In addition, Rs 7 lakh to Rs 9 lakh has to be spent on training a pilot. Then there are refresher courses every six months.

The state-owned Indian Airlines is the only airline to have a large number of trained pilots to operate in low visibility conditions. It has nearly 400 pilots trained to operate in CAT IIII B conditions.

A top airline CEO, on the condition of anonymity, said, "It is better to take the hit of cancellations and rescheduling for one month in a year, especially because not all airports have the anti-fog devices."

The industry incurs a loss of over Rs 150 crore to Rs 200 crore owing to fog-related cancellations and diversions.

"The new aircraft have anti-fog devices, but installing these in older planes is costly," the Airports Authority of India sources said.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation will not permit airlines to train a pilot directly into CAT III operations. A pilot will have to clear CAT II, CAT IIIA and then CAT III.

Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel recently reviewed the preparedness of airlines and airports. At present, Delhi airport is the only one equipped with CAT III B.

"The system allows compatible aircraft and trained pilots to land even when the runway visibility is up to 50 meter. Still flights are getting delayed due to Air Traffic Control constraints," said a Delhi airport source.