Posted online: 2011-12-21
Once upon a time, Indian airports were a monopoly under the Airports Authority of India. As a result of public outcry against their mismanagement, the government decided to take the Delhi and Mumbai metro airports out of the purview of AAI and privatise them. Similarly, new airports came up in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Cochin under the private sector. We now have world-class airport terminal buildings in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Cochin—where the public is more satisfied and AAI is enjoying better incentives by way of revenue share than it would have done otherwise.
We are now facing a similar situation in air traffic management. As a result of India’s economic growth and the liberalisation of our skies both domestically and internationally, there has been a tremendous increase in air traffic and aircraft movement (both at landing and take-off). Its main impact has been felt in the two premier airports of the country—Mumbai and New Delhi—and also our other metro airports, leading to long delays in aircraft landings due to congestion in the air. What has gone wrong? Why are aircraft made to wait in the air and circle over these airports for a long time before they are allowed to land? Why are airlines not given the requisite heights to cruise where they minimise their consumption? The
answer lies in our inadequate capacity to handle air traffic, which is the AAI’s mandate. And AAI has not improved in proportion to the increase in air movement, while the charges for the same have gone up. The reason given is that since runway capacity is still the same, we find it difficult to accommodate the increase in traffic movement in the air, especially in Mumbai (New Delhi now has two parallel runways).
What are the solutions to such a problem? Air traffic management methodology has undergone a sea change the world over. In many countries, new equipment and procedures have allowed the runways to double their capacity without increasing size, but not in our country. The International Civil Aviation Organisation, the international regulator, has approved new methods/procedures that enhance aircraft movement per hour from a single runway by installing new equipment such as ground radars. From a traditional 35 movements an hour, we can go up to 55 or even more if we follow this strategy. However, in India, while the growth in air traffic has been phenomenal, the air traffic management has not kept pace with leading technologies to reduce congestion in the sky.
The US is in the process of introducing ‘NextGen’ air traffic management and the Europeans have merged their sovereign skies into a single sky. India, with its single sky, still maintains four separate flight regions whose radars are not connected online. AAI does not have a computerised ‘air traffic flow management’ system, which is a mandatory requirement as per ICAO, when air traffic
demand is likely to reach the handling capacity of air traffic management. As a result of poor management, our air traffic remains under antiquated directions, leading to delays. We need to invest in air traffic management in our airports but our priorities get dictated by public perceptions of the visible aspect of aviation versus the invisible.
Does the air traffic management system not have full national coverage to ensure that flights do not unnecessarily hover around a metro airport at peak time? Are we not adding to wastage of fuel as well as adding to mounting losses of airlines? Is this not a national wastage? Does this not amount to deficiency in service? And this is not an interstate issue, as the sky above India is under a federal regime and the ministry of civil aviation (as well as AAI) is responsible for it.
Wastage caused by poor air traffic management does not only lead to extra costs for airlines but also a national wastage of imported ATF, as well as increasing environmental pollution—caused by airlines hovering over airports. In fact, AAI should not only be asked to compensate the airlines but should also be penalised for causing extra pollution, as they have not undertaken appropriate enhancements of technology and equipment. The airports regulator should take note.
What is now needed is a quick switch to a satellite-based navigation system, which not only allows better accuracy but also leads to much better aircraft management in the sky. We can make much more efficient use of our existing runways. While we have about 40 landings in an hour on each of our runways, with proper equipment and training of air controllers, this number can be doubled. The proposal to create a separate entity for air traffic management, divorced from AAI, is a good step that needs to be taken quickly to modernise our basic aviation infrastructure.
The author is chairman of International Foundation for Aviation, Aerospace and Development (India chapter)
Once upon a time, Indian airports were a monopoly under the Airports Authority of India. As a result of public outcry against their mismanagement, the government decided to take the Delhi and Mumbai metro airports out of the purview of AAI and privatise them. Similarly, new airports came up in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Cochin under the private sector. We now have world-class airport terminal buildings in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Cochin—where the public is more satisfied and AAI is enjoying better incentives by way of revenue share than it would have done otherwise.
We are now facing a similar situation in air traffic management. As a result of India’s economic growth and the liberalisation of our skies both domestically and internationally, there has been a tremendous increase in air traffic and aircraft movement (both at landing and take-off). Its main impact has been felt in the two premier airports of the country—Mumbai and New Delhi—and also our other metro airports, leading to long delays in aircraft landings due to congestion in the air. What has gone wrong? Why are aircraft made to wait in the air and circle over these airports for a long time before they are allowed to land? Why are airlines not given the requisite heights to cruise where they minimise their consumption? The
answer lies in our inadequate capacity to handle air traffic, which is the AAI’s mandate. And AAI has not improved in proportion to the increase in air movement, while the charges for the same have gone up. The reason given is that since runway capacity is still the same, we find it difficult to accommodate the increase in traffic movement in the air, especially in Mumbai (New Delhi now has two parallel runways).
What are the solutions to such a problem? Air traffic management methodology has undergone a sea change the world over. In many countries, new equipment and procedures have allowed the runways to double their capacity without increasing size, but not in our country. The International Civil Aviation Organisation, the international regulator, has approved new methods/procedures that enhance aircraft movement per hour from a single runway by installing new equipment such as ground radars. From a traditional 35 movements an hour, we can go up to 55 or even more if we follow this strategy. However, in India, while the growth in air traffic has been phenomenal, the air traffic management has not kept pace with leading technologies to reduce congestion in the sky.
The US is in the process of introducing ‘NextGen’ air traffic management and the Europeans have merged their sovereign skies into a single sky. India, with its single sky, still maintains four separate flight regions whose radars are not connected online. AAI does not have a computerised ‘air traffic flow management’ system, which is a mandatory requirement as per ICAO, when air traffic
demand is likely to reach the handling capacity of air traffic management. As a result of poor management, our air traffic remains under antiquated directions, leading to delays. We need to invest in air traffic management in our airports but our priorities get dictated by public perceptions of the visible aspect of aviation versus the invisible.
Does the air traffic management system not have full national coverage to ensure that flights do not unnecessarily hover around a metro airport at peak time? Are we not adding to wastage of fuel as well as adding to mounting losses of airlines? Is this not a national wastage? Does this not amount to deficiency in service? And this is not an interstate issue, as the sky above India is under a federal regime and the ministry of civil aviation (as well as AAI) is responsible for it.
Wastage caused by poor air traffic management does not only lead to extra costs for airlines but also a national wastage of imported ATF, as well as increasing environmental pollution—caused by airlines hovering over airports. In fact, AAI should not only be asked to compensate the airlines but should also be penalised for causing extra pollution, as they have not undertaken appropriate enhancements of technology and equipment. The airports regulator should take note.
What is now needed is a quick switch to a satellite-based navigation system, which not only allows better accuracy but also leads to much better aircraft management in the sky. We can make much more efficient use of our existing runways. While we have about 40 landings in an hour on each of our runways, with proper equipment and training of air controllers, this number can be doubled. The proposal to create a separate entity for air traffic management, divorced from AAI, is a good step that needs to be taken quickly to modernise our basic aviation infrastructure.
The author is chairman of International Foundation for Aviation, Aerospace and Development (India chapter)
No comments:
Post a Comment