The Hindu Business Line : Air passengers' body calls for agency to monitor air safety

WHILE welcoming the move to modernise New Delhi and Mumbai airports, the Air Passengers Association of India (APAI) has said the ongoing strike by the employees of the Airports Authority of India was "unjustified." Mr D. Sudhakara Reddy, Founder and President, APAI, said the Government has assured that 60 per cent of the workforce would be absorbed.

Mr Reddy said with the civil aviation sector growing at the rate of about 25 per cent every year, the Government should set up a body on the lines of the US National Transportation Safety Board to ensure air safety.

Touching upon other areas of concern, he said communication, navigation and other systems must be upgraded to international standards and be operational at all times.

All airports must be equipped with basic equipments to handle emergencies. Mr Reddy said recently when a plane landed at Patna airport and the tyres burst, the airport did not even have the basic tools to carry out repairs.

It is also essential that the Flight and Duty Time Limitations be properly implemented. He said when recruiting foreign pilots all mandatory norms must be followed. Mr Reddy said as per the International Civil Aviation Organisation guidelines, the time required to carry out stay-over checks for B737/A320 is two-and-a-half hours, while it is four hours for bigger aircraft such as B747. The airlines must have the required number of engineers to carry out these checks.

He said none of the private airlines has the required number of engineers. They have recruited freshers and retired engineers from Air India and Indian Airlines for the certification, he said.

Mr Reddy said the Government should seriously consider developing greenfield airports in Mumbai, Delhi and other cities too. It is imperative that a timeframe for the modernisation process is set and penalties for the delay must also be clearly defined.

He said an undertaking from the bidders has to be taken that there would be no increase in either passenger entry fee or service and facilitation charges.