In yet another incident highlighting the chaotic and dangerous conditions prevailing on runways in the country, a 48-seater Air India regional flight hit a nilgai while landing at the Chakeri airport in Kanpur on Thursday.
The 47 passengers on board and four crew members however escaped unhurt. The Delhi-Kanpur-Allahabad flight, CD 7801, had just landed at Kanpur when the incident occurred.
The pilot pulled the emergency brake after he noticed the nilgai on the runway, but the animal took a hit and died on the spot. Air India officials said damages to the nose of the plane forced cancellation of its onward flight to Allahabad.
"A team from Delhi was immediately sent to Kanpur to determine the extent of damage. However, since the aircraft went to the hanger on its own power after the accident, we don't think the damage was too severe," said an Air India spokesperson.
"The plane was landing at 12.33pm when it hit the nilgai," said Air India's area marketing manager Uma Shanker. "All the passengers are safe," he announced.
The airline sent the passengers to Allahabad by taxi, the official said. Allahabad high court judge Justice V N Trivedi and his wife were among the passengers. "There was panic among the passengers," said J S Yadav, a businessman from Allahabad, who was returning from Delhi.
Chakeri is an air force base and has been plagued by blue bulls for some years now. A few years ago, a plane carrying the then Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav was stranded at the airport for nearly an hour after a herd of nilgais blocked the runway.
According to sources, there are no boundary walls around the airfield to prevent the entry of animals on the runway, as yet. Several airports suffer from the problem of stray animals on runways and bird hits, possibly because many are located at some distance from the main city.
Delhi, till some time back, used to witness frequent scenes of animals straying on to the runway. Recently, the runway was closed for about half an hour after a dead jackal was discovered there. Mumbai still has stray dogs running around the airside.
"It is essential for authorities to ensure that aircraft get a clear way for landing and take-off. The incident at Kanpur could have been extremely dangerous and care should be taken to not allow such instances to happen again," said an official of Air India.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Park Air Systems to Provide Air Traffic Control Communications Systems Upgrade for India
Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE : NOC), announced that its Europe-based subsidiary, Park Air Systems, has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract from Airports Authority of India to provide a range of ground-to-air communication equipment as part of their VHF upgrade programme.
etquot ;Northrop Grumman Park Air Systems has a proven history of providing advanced communication equipment globally and we are looking forward to working with them to provide the upgrade of airport VHF radio systems throughout India with the same high quality service and equipment expected,etquot ; said a spokesperson for Airports Authority of India.
etquot ;We will be replacing and upgrading all Northrop Grumman Park Air Systems VHF equipment currently in use at airports across India, including ground-to-air radios and VDL-2 data link software, ensuring that the latest communication equipment is in place functioning at maximum capability,etquot ; said Charles Houseago, chairman of Northrop Grumman’s Park Air Systems.
Under the contract, Northrop Grumman Park Air Systems will be providing PAE T6 Multimode Digital Radio (MDR) transmitters and receivers with antennas together with training and spares. The PAE T6 MDR is a versatile range of software programmable radios satisfying the requirement for both analogue and digital communications within the airspace environment.
Northrop Grumman Park Air Systems, based in Peterborough, UK, and Oslo and Horten, Norway, supplies communication, navigation and surveillance systems for air-space operations worldwide. The company has been providing air traffic control and communications systems for military and civil applications in India for more than 20-years. Northrop Grumman also provides mission planning, tactical data links, battle space awareness and other C4ISR solutions. Northrop Grumman has offices across the Asia and Asia Pacific regions in Seoul, Korea ; Tokyo ; Taipei, Taiwan ; Singapore ; New Delhi ; and Canberra, Australia. Northrop Grumman opened its New Delhi office in November 2006.
Northrop Grumman Corporation is a US$32 billion global defence and technology company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in information and services, electronics, aerospace and shipbuilding to government and commercial customers worldwide.
Web site : http://www.northropgrumman.com
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Cochin international Airport Flight Schedule
COCHIN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT - WINTER SCHEDULE-2007
INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL - WITH EFFECT FROM 28-10-2007
Click here to download the PDF format
INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL - WITH EFFECT FROM 28-10-2007
Click here to download the PDF format
BAngalore International Airport is getting ready for take-off
With the new international airport set to open March 30 in India's silicon city, domestic and foreign airlines are waiting in the wings to launch new services and increase frequencies from this southern hub to new and existing destinations both in India and abroad.
"We are getting a lot of enquiries from leading carriers operating in the domestic and international circuits," said Marcel Hunger Buehler, the chief executive for Bangalore International Airport Ltd.
"Many of them have come calling to inspect the facilities, including the four-km runway, parking bays, apron capacity, taxiways, air traffic control (ATC) and turn-around-time for quick landing and departure," Buehler told IANS at the project site in Devanahalli, around 37 km from the heart of the garden city.
"With the initial capacity of the greenfield airport being twice that of the existing airport in the city, airlines will have enough space to operate many flights efficiently and economically from day one. Domestic and international airlines can even scale their operations during peak and non-peak hours."
Bangalore has the third busiest airport in the country after Mumbai and Delhi due to the phenomenal growth of air traffic over the past three-four years, largely driven by a booming IT sector and all-round economic growth in the country.
"Bangalore airport has witnessed the fastest growth (30-35 percent) in the country in terms of passengers and cargo since our consortium signed the concession agreement (CA) with the central and state governments in July 2004 and took up construction a year later," Buehler said.
"When the 50-year-old state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) airport in the city surpassed the projected annual growth of eight million passengers in 2006-07, we had to revise the blueprint to club the first phase with the second phase for expanding the capacity to handle 10-12 million passengers over the next two-three years."
As part of the CA, the HAL airport will shut down for civilian operations March 29 midnight and all flights, including feeder services, will have to use the new airport.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to formally inaugurate the airport March 28.
"Hong Kong-based Dragon Air and Oman Air, the national carrier of the Sultanate of Oman, have already sought clearance to operate daily service from the new airport. Existing international airlines, such as Lufthansa, Air France, British Airways, Singapore Airlines, Gulf Air and Emirates plan to increase the number of flights a week to provide better connectivity and more capacity."
"Similarly, domestic carriers such as Jet Airways and Kingfisher will launch international flights to Europe and the US in the coming months. We expect other airlines, including Air India and Malaysian Airlines to increase services to existing and newer destinations."
Passenger traffic from Bangalore is projected to increase by 26-30 percent in fiscal 2008-09 on domestic and international routes to achieve an annual growth rate of 40 percent.
Air cargo traffic is also poised to grow by about 30 percent due to huge capacity increase to handle about 300,000 tonnes of freight annually.
"In the long-run, Bengaluru airport will be positioned as a strategic hub in southern India for east-bound and west-bound flights, providing global airlines an alternative to Mumbai in the west and Delhi in the north."
"Our game plan is to take up the next phase of expansion in 12-18 months at an estimated cost of Rs.25 billion ($625 million) to handle 15 million passengers annually by 2014-15, with a second runaway to facilitate landing and taking-off every minute by an aircraft," Brunner said.
As against 24-26 flights every hour at the city airport during peak hours, the new airport will be able to operate 30 flights during the same time.
The combined first phase of the project has a fully air-conditioned central terminal for domestic and international passengers, rapid exits, 42 aircraft stands, eight passenger boarding bridges, 54 check-in counters and five belts, including two double belts to handle arrival baggage of 10 flights at a time.
Located on the east of Bangalore-Hyderabad national highway (NH7) and spread over 3,900 acres, the swanky airport will have parking place for about 2,000 cars at any given time, various auxiliary buildings, a fuel farm, rescue and fire fighting facilities, ground support equipment, airline support facilities, two major cargo warehouses and flight kitchens.
Built on a public-private partnership model, the airport will be operated by BIAL, a consortium of Unique Zurich Airport and Siemens Projects Ventures and Larson and Toubro with a combined equity stake of 74 percent and two state promoters Karnataka State Investment and Industrial Development Corp and Airports Authority of India holding the remaining 26 percent stake.
Taken from http://www.hindustantimes.com
"We are getting a lot of enquiries from leading carriers operating in the domestic and international circuits," said Marcel Hunger Buehler, the chief executive for Bangalore International Airport Ltd.
"Many of them have come calling to inspect the facilities, including the four-km runway, parking bays, apron capacity, taxiways, air traffic control (ATC) and turn-around-time for quick landing and departure," Buehler told IANS at the project site in Devanahalli, around 37 km from the heart of the garden city.
"With the initial capacity of the greenfield airport being twice that of the existing airport in the city, airlines will have enough space to operate many flights efficiently and economically from day one. Domestic and international airlines can even scale their operations during peak and non-peak hours."
Bangalore has the third busiest airport in the country after Mumbai and Delhi due to the phenomenal growth of air traffic over the past three-four years, largely driven by a booming IT sector and all-round economic growth in the country.
"Bangalore airport has witnessed the fastest growth (30-35 percent) in the country in terms of passengers and cargo since our consortium signed the concession agreement (CA) with the central and state governments in July 2004 and took up construction a year later," Buehler said.
"When the 50-year-old state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) airport in the city surpassed the projected annual growth of eight million passengers in 2006-07, we had to revise the blueprint to club the first phase with the second phase for expanding the capacity to handle 10-12 million passengers over the next two-three years."
As part of the CA, the HAL airport will shut down for civilian operations March 29 midnight and all flights, including feeder services, will have to use the new airport.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to formally inaugurate the airport March 28.
"Hong Kong-based Dragon Air and Oman Air, the national carrier of the Sultanate of Oman, have already sought clearance to operate daily service from the new airport. Existing international airlines, such as Lufthansa, Air France, British Airways, Singapore Airlines, Gulf Air and Emirates plan to increase the number of flights a week to provide better connectivity and more capacity."
"Similarly, domestic carriers such as Jet Airways and Kingfisher will launch international flights to Europe and the US in the coming months. We expect other airlines, including Air India and Malaysian Airlines to increase services to existing and newer destinations."
Passenger traffic from Bangalore is projected to increase by 26-30 percent in fiscal 2008-09 on domestic and international routes to achieve an annual growth rate of 40 percent.
Air cargo traffic is also poised to grow by about 30 percent due to huge capacity increase to handle about 300,000 tonnes of freight annually.
"In the long-run, Bengaluru airport will be positioned as a strategic hub in southern India for east-bound and west-bound flights, providing global airlines an alternative to Mumbai in the west and Delhi in the north."
"Our game plan is to take up the next phase of expansion in 12-18 months at an estimated cost of Rs.25 billion ($625 million) to handle 15 million passengers annually by 2014-15, with a second runaway to facilitate landing and taking-off every minute by an aircraft," Brunner said.
As against 24-26 flights every hour at the city airport during peak hours, the new airport will be able to operate 30 flights during the same time.
The combined first phase of the project has a fully air-conditioned central terminal for domestic and international passengers, rapid exits, 42 aircraft stands, eight passenger boarding bridges, 54 check-in counters and five belts, including two double belts to handle arrival baggage of 10 flights at a time.
Located on the east of Bangalore-Hyderabad national highway (NH7) and spread over 3,900 acres, the swanky airport will have parking place for about 2,000 cars at any given time, various auxiliary buildings, a fuel farm, rescue and fire fighting facilities, ground support equipment, airline support facilities, two major cargo warehouses and flight kitchens.
Built on a public-private partnership model, the airport will be operated by BIAL, a consortium of Unique Zurich Airport and Siemens Projects Ventures and Larson and Toubro with a combined equity stake of 74 percent and two state promoters Karnataka State Investment and Industrial Development Corp and Airports Authority of India holding the remaining 26 percent stake.
Taken from http://www.hindustantimes.com
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Traffic Congestion Over Indian Skies
Every month six aircraft are added to the Indian airspace. In 2006-07, 60 million people travelled by air in the country—half of them preferred other modes till five years ago. The aviation sector is indeed growing at a steep rate. Here is the downside: congestion, flight delays and diversions; all leading to enormous fuel wastage.
The average wastage of fuel per flight operating between Delhi and Mumbai, the two most congested airports in the country, is 30-40 per cent, says Ravi Capoor, the executive director of the Petroleum Conservation Research Association, an energy auditing agency
Ever since the domestic open-sky policy came into force towards the end of 2003, the stage was set for the entry of private carriers in a big way.
The spurt in growth came in 2005 when three more airlines—Kingfisher, SpiceJet and GoAir—joined the Indian skies. At present, there are 10 major domestic airlines. In the pipeline are regional airlines. By 2012 the combined fleet of all airlines in the country would have increased by 480—India’s aircraft-strength in March 2007 was 310. The good thing is India will have a fleet of new-generation, fuel-efficient aircraft, but this advantage will be nullified if infrastructure does not keep pace with growing traffic. Already there is congestion in the air.
Though fog is notorious for causing flight delays in winter, it is not the only culprit. Congestion resulting from inadequate infrastructure and manpower is also running up the aviation fuel bill. In 1997-98, the demand for aviation turbine fuel (atf) was 2,108 tonnes. This grew by 90 per cent to 4,008 tonnes in 2006-07. Demand is now breaching records. As per provisional figures available with the petroleum ministry in December 2007, 419 tonnes of atf was sold, the highest ever in a month.
While no exact data is available on fuel lost due to fog delays, it is estimated to be a sizeable 35-40 per cent, depending on the flight and the distance it covers, says an industry source. The worst-hit is the Delhi airport, which witnessed more than 800 fog hours between December 2006 and January 2007 (see box: Fogged out). When the runway visibility range drops below 800 metres, the number of flights using a runway is restricted to eight in half an hour. Though the Delhi airport is equipped with cat III B instrument landing system that enables flight operations in poor visibility, aircraft operators prefer not to risk foggy conditions. On February 6, 2008, over 150 flights coming to and going out of Delhi were delayed by up to three hours, while 18 flights were diverted and 18 cancelled due to dense fog. This costs airlines a great deal.
Up in smoke
Take an example of a plane flying from Mumbai to Delhi. Under normal conditions a new generation Boeing or Airbus will take two hours and use up 4,500 kg of atf for the journey . A number of pilots Down To Earth spoke to, said it was common in the two airports for a flight to stay in the air for an extra hour. For every hour a plane hovers in the sky, it consumes between 2,200 kg and 2,400 kg of atf. In case of a half-hour delay, it can consume between 25 and 30 per cent extra fuel. And if the flight is diverted, say, to Ahmedabad, it is another hour of flying time, and the plane will consume close to 80 per cent extra fuel.
Considering that the Delhi airport handles 600-650 flights every day, the total emissions and cost to airlines are huge. One hour of hovering costs an airline over Rs 1 lakh. There are over 40 flights that operate about 80 trips between Mumbai and Delhi every day. If all of them have an average circling time of 30 minutes each, about 92,000 kg (or 115,000 litres) of fuel will go waste. This means over Rs 44 lakh gone down the drain in a day. And we haven’t even begun to count the national loss.
In terms of emissions, the 115,000 extra litres of fuel burnt every day between Mumbai and Delhi means 248.2 tonnes of co2 pumped into the atmosphere, or pollution caused by 161 small cars running for a year. Aviation fuel, which is a form of kerosene, produces about 2.158 kg of co2 emissions per litre consumed. These are rough estimates. Under actual conditions, fuel consumption depends on a number of factors, including fuel usage during take-off and landing. During take-off, fuel burn is the maximum, almost 8,000 litres an hour. During economic landing mode, fuel burn can be less than 300 litres an hour. Winds and jet streams also affect an aircraft’s fuel efficiency.
Emissions from aviation in India have not been studied formally. The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, along with the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, is conducting a study, which will be out later this year. Aircraft in India, says Capoor, consume 5-6 litres of aviation fuel to transport 100 passengers over a kilometre against the international standard of 3.5 litres.
A senior pilot with SpiceJet says at times because of congestion, air traffic controllers (atcs) instruct pilots to slow down while approaching an airport, which burns precious fuel by bringing the speed down from the optimum level. Fuel efficiency also depends on the height at which a plane flies. “Often due to congestion, if two flights have taken off in the same direction, the second flight will need to fly at a lower height to maintain a minimum vertical separation, shooting up fuel consumption,” he says.
Plain truth
When the government claims that airport infrastructure is gearing up to meet the challenge, it tells you only the half truth. No doubt infrastructure is being added at a rapid pace. Greenfield airports, brownfield airports, capacity addition and modernization are the buzzwords at the civil aviation ministry. But there are infrastructural problems building more airports cannot address.
One of the long-standing issues has been radar integration, says an official of the International Air Transport Association. In radar-networked areas all radars are interconnected to give details about the position of all aircraft within a territorial zone. But radar integration is not possible because almost 40 per cent of India’s civil airspace has no radar coverage. This leads to delays and underutilization of airspace. In areas with no radar coverage, a minimum separation of 80 nautical miles or 10 minutes of flying time is to be maintained against a gap of one minute 15 seconds for radar-networked areas.
Last year, the government decided to look into the issue, but industry insiders say the plan to integrate radars is a pipedream. “The problem with Indian radars is that they have not been supplied by a single vendor. Integrating these radars, which have been provided by three vendors, will be an uphill task,” says a ministry official. Airports in Delhi and Mumbai use radars provided by Raytheon. Airports in Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram and some other cities use Westinghouse radars. Those in Bangalore and Hyderabad use radars provided by Selex. Integrating them into one system will be very difficult.
There is another technological glitch. atcs use the Radar Data Processor System and the Flight Data Processing System to monitor and guide aircraft into airports. Both the systems need to be integrated for safe landings and take-offs. Under an integrated system the data of flights are automatically read by the radar data processor to ascertain the number of flights approaching the airport. Only Delhi and Mumbai have the integrated system. In other airports the atcs have to constantly feed in flight data and also delete older data manually. This leads to diversion and wastage of time.
No control
Dearth of trained atcs is another problem. In 2000, there were only 50 airports in the country. In 2007, the number climbed to 82. However, between 2000 and 2005 the government did not recruit a single atc. The Roy Paul Committee set up by the aviation ministry in 2005 had indicated that more then 200 atc posts needed to be filled up immediately. A report released by the Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry in December 2007 stated that the number of atcs required in India could be as high 1,500.
An official of the civil aviation ministry, however, said India needed at least 4,000-5,000 atcs to ensure smooth operations. At present, there are only 1,500 atcs in the country. Delhi had just about 180 atcs, and it needs another 80-90 to handle air traffic, he added. Airports in Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Chennai also need to double their atc strength. Airspace over an airport is divided into sectors depending on the number of aircraft in the skies. Unless the airports get more atcs, they cannot open more sectors.
Is it possible to meet the demand quickly? The Civil Aviation Training College in Allahabad can train 160 atcs in a year. They will then need a year of basic training and three years of on-the-job training before taking up radar duties. Another facility being set up in Hyderabad will be able to train not more than 70 atcs. Both the training facilities cannot churn out enough number of trainee atcs in two years, forget about the trained ones. It seems India’s aviation sector has taken to an unsustainable and wasteful course.
Taken from http://www.downtoearth.org.in/default.htm
The average wastage of fuel per flight operating between Delhi and Mumbai, the two most congested airports in the country, is 30-40 per cent, says Ravi Capoor, the executive director of the Petroleum Conservation Research Association, an energy auditing agency
Ever since the domestic open-sky policy came into force towards the end of 2003, the stage was set for the entry of private carriers in a big way.
The spurt in growth came in 2005 when three more airlines—Kingfisher, SpiceJet and GoAir—joined the Indian skies. At present, there are 10 major domestic airlines. In the pipeline are regional airlines. By 2012 the combined fleet of all airlines in the country would have increased by 480—India’s aircraft-strength in March 2007 was 310. The good thing is India will have a fleet of new-generation, fuel-efficient aircraft, but this advantage will be nullified if infrastructure does not keep pace with growing traffic. Already there is congestion in the air.
Though fog is notorious for causing flight delays in winter, it is not the only culprit. Congestion resulting from inadequate infrastructure and manpower is also running up the aviation fuel bill. In 1997-98, the demand for aviation turbine fuel (atf) was 2,108 tonnes. This grew by 90 per cent to 4,008 tonnes in 2006-07. Demand is now breaching records. As per provisional figures available with the petroleum ministry in December 2007, 419 tonnes of atf was sold, the highest ever in a month.
While no exact data is available on fuel lost due to fog delays, it is estimated to be a sizeable 35-40 per cent, depending on the flight and the distance it covers, says an industry source. The worst-hit is the Delhi airport, which witnessed more than 800 fog hours between December 2006 and January 2007 (see box: Fogged out). When the runway visibility range drops below 800 metres, the number of flights using a runway is restricted to eight in half an hour. Though the Delhi airport is equipped with cat III B instrument landing system that enables flight operations in poor visibility, aircraft operators prefer not to risk foggy conditions. On February 6, 2008, over 150 flights coming to and going out of Delhi were delayed by up to three hours, while 18 flights were diverted and 18 cancelled due to dense fog. This costs airlines a great deal.
Up in smoke
Take an example of a plane flying from Mumbai to Delhi. Under normal conditions a new generation Boeing or Airbus will take two hours and use up 4,500 kg of atf for the journey . A number of pilots Down To Earth spoke to, said it was common in the two airports for a flight to stay in the air for an extra hour. For every hour a plane hovers in the sky, it consumes between 2,200 kg and 2,400 kg of atf. In case of a half-hour delay, it can consume between 25 and 30 per cent extra fuel. And if the flight is diverted, say, to Ahmedabad, it is another hour of flying time, and the plane will consume close to 80 per cent extra fuel.
Considering that the Delhi airport handles 600-650 flights every day, the total emissions and cost to airlines are huge. One hour of hovering costs an airline over Rs 1 lakh. There are over 40 flights that operate about 80 trips between Mumbai and Delhi every day. If all of them have an average circling time of 30 minutes each, about 92,000 kg (or 115,000 litres) of fuel will go waste. This means over Rs 44 lakh gone down the drain in a day. And we haven’t even begun to count the national loss.
In terms of emissions, the 115,000 extra litres of fuel burnt every day between Mumbai and Delhi means 248.2 tonnes of co2 pumped into the atmosphere, or pollution caused by 161 small cars running for a year. Aviation fuel, which is a form of kerosene, produces about 2.158 kg of co2 emissions per litre consumed. These are rough estimates. Under actual conditions, fuel consumption depends on a number of factors, including fuel usage during take-off and landing. During take-off, fuel burn is the maximum, almost 8,000 litres an hour. During economic landing mode, fuel burn can be less than 300 litres an hour. Winds and jet streams also affect an aircraft’s fuel efficiency.
Emissions from aviation in India have not been studied formally. The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, along with the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, is conducting a study, which will be out later this year. Aircraft in India, says Capoor, consume 5-6 litres of aviation fuel to transport 100 passengers over a kilometre against the international standard of 3.5 litres.
A senior pilot with SpiceJet says at times because of congestion, air traffic controllers (atcs) instruct pilots to slow down while approaching an airport, which burns precious fuel by bringing the speed down from the optimum level. Fuel efficiency also depends on the height at which a plane flies. “Often due to congestion, if two flights have taken off in the same direction, the second flight will need to fly at a lower height to maintain a minimum vertical separation, shooting up fuel consumption,” he says.
Plain truth
When the government claims that airport infrastructure is gearing up to meet the challenge, it tells you only the half truth. No doubt infrastructure is being added at a rapid pace. Greenfield airports, brownfield airports, capacity addition and modernization are the buzzwords at the civil aviation ministry. But there are infrastructural problems building more airports cannot address.
One of the long-standing issues has been radar integration, says an official of the International Air Transport Association. In radar-networked areas all radars are interconnected to give details about the position of all aircraft within a territorial zone. But radar integration is not possible because almost 40 per cent of India’s civil airspace has no radar coverage. This leads to delays and underutilization of airspace. In areas with no radar coverage, a minimum separation of 80 nautical miles or 10 minutes of flying time is to be maintained against a gap of one minute 15 seconds for radar-networked areas.
Last year, the government decided to look into the issue, but industry insiders say the plan to integrate radars is a pipedream. “The problem with Indian radars is that they have not been supplied by a single vendor. Integrating these radars, which have been provided by three vendors, will be an uphill task,” says a ministry official. Airports in Delhi and Mumbai use radars provided by Raytheon. Airports in Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram and some other cities use Westinghouse radars. Those in Bangalore and Hyderabad use radars provided by Selex. Integrating them into one system will be very difficult.
There is another technological glitch. atcs use the Radar Data Processor System and the Flight Data Processing System to monitor and guide aircraft into airports. Both the systems need to be integrated for safe landings and take-offs. Under an integrated system the data of flights are automatically read by the radar data processor to ascertain the number of flights approaching the airport. Only Delhi and Mumbai have the integrated system. In other airports the atcs have to constantly feed in flight data and also delete older data manually. This leads to diversion and wastage of time.
No control
Dearth of trained atcs is another problem. In 2000, there were only 50 airports in the country. In 2007, the number climbed to 82. However, between 2000 and 2005 the government did not recruit a single atc. The Roy Paul Committee set up by the aviation ministry in 2005 had indicated that more then 200 atc posts needed to be filled up immediately. A report released by the Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry in December 2007 stated that the number of atcs required in India could be as high 1,500.
An official of the civil aviation ministry, however, said India needed at least 4,000-5,000 atcs to ensure smooth operations. At present, there are only 1,500 atcs in the country. Delhi had just about 180 atcs, and it needs another 80-90 to handle air traffic, he added. Airports in Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Chennai also need to double their atc strength. Airspace over an airport is divided into sectors depending on the number of aircraft in the skies. Unless the airports get more atcs, they cannot open more sectors.
Is it possible to meet the demand quickly? The Civil Aviation Training College in Allahabad can train 160 atcs in a year. They will then need a year of basic training and three years of on-the-job training before taking up radar duties. Another facility being set up in Hyderabad will be able to train not more than 70 atcs. Both the training facilities cannot churn out enough number of trainee atcs in two years, forget about the trained ones. It seems India’s aviation sector has taken to an unsustainable and wasteful course.
Taken from http://www.downtoearth.org.in/default.htm
Friday, February 8, 2008
Emergency landing at Cochin
Kochi: A piece of tyre found on the runway at Muscat airport gave some anxious moments to crew and passengers of an Oman Air flight, which landed here this morning under "full emergency" preparations.
However, all the tyres of the aircraft, which were examined later, were found intact, airport sources said. The flight later took off on its return journey an hour later.
There were 108 passengers and crew on board the flight. The flight from Muscat landed here at the International airport at 7 am with "full emergency" after the Air Traffic Control was informed that a piece of wheel tyre of the aircraft was found on the runway of the Muscat airport.
The Pilot of the flight was immediately informed and he requested the Kochi airport authorities to allow low flying over the airport to enable the safety officers of the airport to see if any of the tyres had its edges chipped.
The airport authorities informed various agencies to make immediate arrangements for "full emergency" landing. Ambulance vehicles and fire mobile units were pressed into service to meet any eventuality.
The pilot operated 'touch and go' exercise at the airport to test the defect of the tyre and then safely landed the aircraft.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
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