The Hindu Business Line : Airlines gearing up to meet fog challenge

IA has issued internal orders to all its departments involved in completion of co-ordination for despatch of flights to co-ordinate their tasks during the night itself so as to be totally prepared to ensure that a aircraft can take off at short notice, weather permitting.

New Delhi , Dec. 26

EVEN as the fog is playing havoc with the operation of flights to and from North India, the domestic airlines are putting their best foot forward to ensure that the inconvenience to passengers is minimised.

The state-owned Indian Airlines (IA) has already taken a series of "preventive and precautionary" measures that include ensuring that all pilots eligible for Category III-A endorsement are trained and cleared for such operations during the winter despite the huge costs involved in training.

While the initial training for Category III-A costs anything above Rs 7.5 lakh, the airline also has to ensure that the pilot licence is "maintained" which costs a few lakh of rupees each year per pilot. Category III-A endorsement allows pilots to land even when visibility is low at an airport.

Besides, IA has also issued internal orders to all its departments involved in completion of co-ordination for despatch of flights to co-ordinate their tasks during the night itself so as to be totally prepared to ensure that a aircraft can take off at short notice, weather permitting.

Similarly, Jet Airways is also making use of `Jet mobile' a service through which a passenger is informed by SMS on the mobile phone in case the flight is delayed by more than 30 minutes. In addition, the airline has also installed an IVR number that is updated every 30 minutes and gives information on the status of flights.

A spokesperson of Air Sahara added that the airline has launched a `fog helpline' to inform passengers about fog-related delays.

When contacted, all the airlines said that they would take all steps to ensure the comfort of the passengers affected by departure delays. "The job of any airline is to get the passengers to their final destination. In case they do not reach their final destination, but are diverted to another destination from which the journey did not originate, then any airline should provide the passengers with hotel accommodation," a senior airline official said.

In the past few days, there have been several cancellations and delays in the normal operations of airlines in North India due to inclement weather. In fact, the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, too was not spared by the weather Gods. The VVIP flight could not land in Delhi and was diverted to Jaipur. Eventually, Mr Vajpayee travelled by road from Jaipur to Delhi.

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