Last Sunday, fog in Chennai disrupted around 80 per cent flights in Delhi. On Christmas, a Kingfisher flight, which could not land in Delhi due to poor visibility, was diverted by the Delhi ATC to Jaipur, but the flight could not land, as there were no vacant parking bays. The flight finally landed at Udaipur.

To avoid such incidents in future the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has proposed to establish a Central Air Traffic Flow Management Unit—which in simpler terms means that flight data, airport capacity and runway capacity of every airport in India will be available at this one unit.

The AAI is also planning to put up a web link to this unit. All airlines, ATCs and airport operators will be able to view the weather at all airports as well as alerts about bottlenecks. The AAI has just mooted the proposal and system is expected to be in place by the end of 2009.

This would mean all airlines and airport operators would have real-time information about every other airport in the country. “So if there is a problem at any airport the airlines would have the option of rescheduling their flight or make alternative arrangements. The ATC before diverting a flight to any airport would know exactly whether the parking bay is available or not,” added the officer.

The AAI is planning to build this unit on the lines of such centralised units existing in America, Europe and Japan. “This CFMU will be able to dynamically assess the airspace situation and the capacity at all airports could be used optimally. If you know all the operational constraints and weather parameters then you can have a smooth flight,” said a senior AAI official.

... contd.