Even as dense fog condition threatens to engulf all of northern India, major low cost carriers, Spice Jet and Jetlite, don’t have a single pilot trained to fly in CAT III visibility conditions.

Figures shared by the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) have revealed that both the airlines lack CAT-III trained pilot. The other major low cost airline, Air Deccan, has just four CAT-III trained pilots, all foreigners. GoAir has 13 Indian CAT III-trained pilots and 8 foreign CAT III pilots.

However, the DGCA will not be canceling slots of airlines without CAT-III trained pilots as was indicated by them earlier.

“All airlines have been told that only CAT III-trained pilots should fly during fog period slots. If a flight is cancelled due to unavailability of a trained pilot during such a slot without prior information to passengers, next year, the airline will not be given a slot during the fog period. Slots will not be cancelled this year so that passengers don’t face any inconvenience,” said Kanu Gohain, director, DGCA.

Indian (Airlines) has the maximum CAT III-trained pilots at 265, followed by Air India with 192 CAT III pilots. Jet Airways has as many as 300 CAT II-trained pilots but only 58 CAT III- trained pilots- all foreigners- as per the DGCA data. The runway 28 at IGI airport is equipped with CAT III-B Instrument Landing System, which allows aircraft to land even at a Runway Visibility Range (RVR) of up to 50 meters. However, despite the DGCA’s directions to airlines to get their pilots trained for CAT III, airlines don’t seem to be paying any heed to it.

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