Now Delhi airport can help airlines cut cost

FEGPs can act as an alternative to the ATF-powered Auxillary Power Units (APU) of the aircraft. After an aircraft lands and its main engines are turned off,it switches to the APU for power and the all important on-board air-conditioning back up. At many metro airports,in the absence of FEGP,airlines opt for the less expensive diesel-run Ground Power Unit (GPU) and air-conditioning carts as an alternative to the APU after landing.

“Experts feel that an FEGP is 6-25 times less expensive than an APU,depending on the aircraft type. An European Union study shows that use of FEGP and PCA (Pre conditioned air) instead of APU reduces GHG emissions up to 40 per cent,” said Amber Dubey,Director,Aerospace and Defence,at the consultant firm KPMG.

At the IGI airport,an airport officer said that airlines could expect to cut costs by at least a third or a fourth using an FEGP. “Even if they save a few hundred rupees with each flight,it would save them a lot of money on an annual basis,” he said.

At many European airports it is mandatory to use the FEGP. “At Heathrow,the FEGP user charges are less than Rs 900/ hr which is significantly lower than the cost of ATF burnt by APUs which works out to Rs 5,000 per hr (B727) to Rs 7,000 (A320) to around Rs 18,000 (B747),” Dubey said.

Last year,when the air fuel costs were sky rocketing,Air India which has around 200 GPUs across the country issued a circular asking its pilots to switch off its APU as much as possible and turn to the diesel-run GPU and the air-conditioning carts. But pilots and engineers say in India,non-metro airports like Lucknow,Amritsar do not even have GPUs in place; and air conditioning carts are even more rare to find.