Air carriers brace to pierce winter haze

BANGALORE: With winter in north India just a few weeks away, domestic airlines are gearing up to get the approval of the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) to operate in CAT-II (runway visibility range not below 350 metres) conditions at Delhi airport.

The CAT-II system is an instrument-approach system. This type of precision approach provides the pilot vertical guidance as well as horizontal guidance to the runway. This guidance system provides the pilot accuracy, integrity, and availability during adverse weather conditions.

Last winter, almost all carriers had to face huge operational disturbances and revenue losses at the Delhi airport because they were not prepared for low- visibility landing and takeoff.

However, with the DGCA making it mandatory this year for all operators to qualify for CAT II, in the absence of which they would not be allowed to fly to Delhi, airlines are rushing to complete the training of pilots and meeting other requirements to be CAT II-complaint before the winter comes.

"We are in the process of training our pilots. Around 80% of our pilots are ready for the CAT II operations and more eligible ones are being trained," says SpiceJet Ltd executive vice-president J S Dhillon.

It costs around Rs one lakh ($2,000) to train a pilot to fly at an RVR of up to 350 metres, not to mention the time spent on it. But most carriers are looking at it as a long-term investment on a lucrative route such as Delhi, where the visibility range during winters can dip to as low as 75 metres.

Budget carrier Air Deccan, which was badly hit by the fog last year, is not taking any chances this time around. It had a staggering cancellation of 597 in January (a winter month), blamed partly on bad weather and poor visibility at airports. "This year, we have put a fog plan in place. All our pilots have been trained on simulator. They are now being trained on aircraft. Four more of our turboprop aircraft are being sent to Delhi for the DGCA sign off," said Air Deccan COO Warwick Brady.

The no-frills carrier lost Rs 3-4 crore due to the fog last time. A Kingfisher spokesperson also said that the airline had completed simulation training of its 130 pilots, and they were now practising on aircraft.

An industry insider revealed that the DGCA, in its eagerness to clear airlines for CAT-II operation, has even relaxed the mandatory period of operating in CAT-I condition for an airline from one year to six months.

But even as carriers get ready for the Delhi winter, they want the government to upgrade more airfields (Kolkata, Srinagar, Jaipur, Lucknow, Amritsar and others) to CAT-II status so that the whole exercise becomes cost-effective and (winter) flight disruptions are minimised.

"Today, since only Delhi has CAT-II, there is a chance of using only 1% of cabin crew trained for CAT-II but if more airports have CAT-II, our pilot training will become more cost-effective," says Dhillon.