New Delhi: Amid fog-induced disruptions at various airports including Delhi’s, causing severe inconvenience to passengers, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has directed all airlines to publish real time information on flight delays and also consider canceling flights anticipated to be delayed over three hours.
These Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) were issued by the regulator late Monday evening. Earlier in the day, following massive delays and chaos at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, the government had directed the airport to expedite the operationalisation of a CAT-III-compliant runway that has been closed for repair since September last year.
While appealing to travellers “to bear with us during this difficult period”, Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia Monday in a post on X added that the DGCA will be issuing a standard operating procedure (SOP) for airlines on better communication and facilitation of passengers “to minimise discomfort in view of flight cancellations & delays due to adverse weather”.
In the SOP sent to all airlines, the DGCA said, “in view of the fog-induced disruptions and adverse weather conditions at various airports including Delhi Airport causing delays, cancellations and inconvenience to passengers, the…Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are mandated in public interest”.
Airlines, it said, will be required to publish accurate real-time information regarding delays of their flights on their websites as well as give advance information to affected passengers by SMS/WhatsApp and email. “Appropriate sensitization of the airline staff at the airports to suitably communicate with and continuously guide and inform the passengers about flight delays,” it said.
It added that airlines may also cancel such flights that are anticipated to be delayed for more than hours. “…airlines may cancel, sufficiently in advance, such flights that are anticipated to be delayed or consequentially delayed on account of such conditions beyond a period of 3 hours with a view to obviate congestion at the airport and mitigate passenger inconvenience.”
“All airlines shall mandatorily adhere to the above SOP with immediate effect,” it said.
Meanwhile, in his post, Scindia had said that all stakeholders are trying their best to minimise passenger inconvenience. “Incidences of unruly behaviour amidst this are unacceptable, and will be dealt with strongly in line with the existing legal provisions.”
His comments come after a passenger purportedly hit an IndiGo pilot while the latter was announcing a flight delay at Delhi airport.
“Yesterday, Delhi witnessed unprecedented fog wherein visibility fluctuated for several hours, and at times, dropped to zero between 5 AM to 9 AM,” the minister said in the post.
He added that the authorities were compelled to enforce a shut-down of operations for some time “even on CAT III runways (CAT III runways cannot handle Zero-Visibility operations). The decision was taken keeping passenger safety in mind, which remains the foremost priority for all in the aviation ecosystem.”
To mitigate the situation in the near future, the Union minister said that Delhi airport has been “asked to immediately expedite the operationalization of the CAT III-enabled 4th runway”.
Yesterday, Delhi witnessed unprecedented fog wherein visibility fluctuated for several hours, and at times, dropped to zero between 5 AM to 9 AM.
The authorities, therefore, were compelled to enforce a shut-down of operations for some time even on CAT III runways (CAT III…
— Jyotiraditya M. Scindia (@JM_Scindia) January 15, 2024
There are four runways at the Delhi airport, of which three are operational. Of the operational runways only one is CAT III-enabled. CAT III is a category of Instrument Landing System (ILS) facility which is a dependable means of navigating to the runway in low visibility conditions.
Amid allegations that of the four runways at the the Delhi airport, only one was operational early Monday, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said that all three operational runways at “Delhi Airport including a CAT III runway were handling flight operations as per their capabilities yesterday, however, with reduced capacity due to intense fog.”
This is not correct. All three Operational Runways at Delhi Airport including a CAT III runway were handling flight operations as per their capabilities yesterday, however, with reduced capacity due to intense fog. https://t.co/5h5vRVVFHV
— MoCA_GoI (@MoCA_GoI) January 15, 2024
“Data from 5 AM to 9 AM shows that the CAT III Runway RWY 11R/29L handled 30 landings and 1 take off during the 4 hour period whereas the non- CAT III Runway RWY 9/27 couldn’t handle any flight movement and RWY 11L/29R handled 2 Take-offs during the period,” it said in a post of X.
According to information of the website of Airports Authority of India (AAI), Cat III can be further divided into CATIIIA, CATIIIB and CATIIIC. The Delhi airport is equipped with CAT IIIB which can help in landing when the runway visual range is less than 200 m but not less than 50m. Other airports in the country that support this technology are Amritsar, Jaipur, Lucknow and Kolkata airport.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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