The Indian aviation sector had quite a rollercoaster ride this past week and not the thrilling kind. Over 14-15 January, more than a thousand flights were delayed and nearly 300 flights cancelled at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi due to near-zero visibility amid dense fog, according to Flightradar24, an independent flight tracking app. Thousands of passengers were left stranded and frustrated.
And while the Delhi airport has two CAT IIIB-compliant runways, which are equipped for landing and takeoff during low visibility, one is still not operational, and the other was only partially functional till Tuesday. North India remains in the grip of a cold wave.
These factors have not only impacted flight operations at Delhi Airport—the biggest and the busiest in the country—but have also had a cascading impact on airline networks and operations across the country.
Social media platforms were flooded with complaints from disgruntled passengers about overcrowded airports, long delays, cancellations, and unprofessional behaviour by airline staff. Some passengers were also stuck in the aircraft for hours either waiting to take off or disembark after landing. A passenger physically attacked an IndiGo pilot who was announcing the flight delay, while in another incident, passengers resorted to eating food on the tarmac after their flight from Goa to Delhi was diverted and landed at the Mumbai airport after a long delay.
These incidents highlight not just the lack of preparedness for the fog season by airlines, airports and aviation authorities, but also the ineptitude of staff to handle the situation. It led to a flurry of notifications and fines from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and dented India’s aviation ambitions. This is why the lack of preparedness at the Delhi Airport is ThePrint’s Newsmaker Of The Week.
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Factors for successful flights
In a post on X, civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia listed three factors for successful CAT-III landings—runway capability, aircraft capability, and pilot accreditation.
Category III, or CAT-III, is a category of Instrument Landing System (ILS) — a means of navigation used in aviation for precision approach and landing operations during low visibility conditions. CAT-III is subdivided into three categories: CAT-IIIA, where the runway visual range is not less than 200m, CAT-IIIB, where the runway visual range is not less than 50m, and CAT-IIIC, which has no runway visual range limitations.
One of the CAT-IIIB runways at the Delhi airport has been closed for repair and maintenance work since September last year and is only expected to be operational this week. Following the backlash, the IGI Airport told the Ministry of Civil Aviation that there was a delay in operationalising airstrip 28/10. The maintenance work could only be taken up after the G20 Summit. Further disruptions in work were caused by the imposition of the final stage of the air pollution control plan, the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP IV) in Delhi, which puts restrictions on construction work.
The other CAT IIIB-compliant runway was downgraded last week to CAT-I—which only allows flights to land when the runway visibility range is up to 550 metres. This happened due to construction activities at the nearby Dwarka Flyover which hampered radio communication. In effect, only one end of this runway was CAT-III compliant till Tuesday, allowing planes to land with a runway visual range of at least 50m.
But the other two factors listed by Scindia for a successful landing—aircraft capability, and pilot accreditation—are in the hands of the airlines. They are required to deploy aircraft equipped for CAT-IIIB, and pilots accredited to handle low-visibility operations.
Scindia pointed out in his post that the majority of the aircraft fleet in India, comprising Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 Max, “have visibility minima greater than the runway threshold”. This, he said, means that even with a functioning runway and sufficiently trained pilots, “these aircraft are not designed for Zero Visibility operations”.
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DGCA action
Following the barrage of complaints from frustrated passengers on social media, the government and the regulators sprung into action on Monday. The government, while appealing to travellers “to bear with us during this difficult period”, directed the Delhi Airport to expedite the operationalisation of a CAT-III-compliant runway closed for repair.
The DGCA also issued 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”.
The DGCA mandated that all airlines publish real-time information on flight delays on their websites as well as alert affected passengers in advance via SMS/ WhatsApp and email. It also directed that there should be “appropriate sensitization” of airline staff to suitably communicate with and continuously guide and inform passengers about flight delays. It further added that airlines may cancel flights that have been delayed by over three hours.
Three airlines and the Mumbai airport were slapped with hefty fines for multiple reasons, including lack of preparedness for the fog season, lack of responsible and efficient handling of emergent situations and violation of aviation security norms.
While the aviation ministry’s Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) on Wednesday slapped a fine of Rs 1.2 crore on IndiGo and Rs 60 lakh on Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MAIL), the DGCA fined the Mumbai Airport Rs 30 lakh. The DGCA has also imposed a penalty of Rs 30 lakh each on Air India and SpiceJet for failure to roster pilots qualified to operate flights in low visibility situations.
A shining star?
Despite the events of this week, Scindia declared India as “the shining star in the civil aviation landscape” at the inauguration of the aviation conference, Wings India, on Thursday.
He highlighted that the total number of domestic passengers rose from 60 million in 2014 to 143 million in 2020 growing at a CAGR of 14.5 per cent, and is expected to reach 300 million by the end of 2030.
“We are clocking more than 4.5 lakh pax a day on a regular basis with a high of 4.67 lakh domestic passengers recently. In the six years leading to FY2020 the number of international passengers had also grown at CAGR of 6.1 per cent,” he said.
India is also now the third biggest buyer of aeroplanes after the US and China, Scindia said. On Thursday, the 17-month-old Akasa Air announced an order to buy 150 Boeing 737 Max aircraft. It comes just months after India’s two biggest airlines—IndiGo and Air India placed orders for 970 aircraft with Airbus and Boeing.
While the second CAT-III runway is likely to ease passenger troubles, one can only hope that this year’s chaos serves as a lesson for airlines, airports and the authorities for a smoother travel experience next fog season.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)