Also, to ensure that the flights landed on time, the air traffic control was operating on ad hoc basis. However, airlines and airport sources fear that the rule may be misused.
The new arrival rule implemented on trial basis at the Mumbai airport proved to be a big flop on Tuesday.
All the flights that landed during the evening peak hours were 15-19 minutes behind schedule.
Also, to ensure that the flights landed on time, the air traffic control was operating on ad hoc basis. However, airlines and airport sources fear that the rule may be misused.
On September 7, 51 flights landed between 9.15pm and 11.15pm at the Mumbai airport based on the new arrival rule. According to the new rule, introduced on trial basis for two months, flights that cannot land in Mumbai during the evening peak hours will either be diverted or they will have to depart before or after the given timing.
It also gives the Mumbai air traffic control (ATC) ad hoc power to manage the traffic. “But, the flights that landed at Mumbai were permitted by the ATC on ad hoc basis. Most of them were 15 minutes late on an average,” said an airport official. “None of the flights were diverted or asked to hold back if they could not make it on time. This defeats the purpose of trying to make airlines stick to their schedule.”
According to ATC sources, the manipulated summer schedule of 2010 is aiding the airlines to perform on time. “In the summer schedule, most airlines have over-stated the timings. For instance, in case of a Delhi-Mumbai flight operated in the afternoon, the airlines have stated the journey time as 1.45 hours. For the evening journey, the time given is two hours,” an ATC official said.
Airlines, however, claim that they are trying hard to ensure that their flights are on time. “We are tracking the aircraft movements. We try to ensure that the flight’s departure isn’t delayed so that it reaches Mumbai on time,” said an official from a private airline.
According to industry experts, strict adherence to the rule may make flights on other routes suffer. “
Just to ensure that the aircraft reaches Mumbai on time, airline will delay flights on other routes. They will pull out aircrafts on one route by announcing technical delay and divert the plane to Mumbai,” said an aviation expert.
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