The Hindu Business Line : Chaos in air and on the ground

Airlines are bleeding because more than 50 per cent of their expenditure is on fuel costs. Every airline in India has declared losses the last few years but the rising oil prices is not the only reason for this.

Every aircraft introduced to the Indian sky has added its bit to the air traffic control confusion. Mumbai and Delhi airports have pathetic infrastructure and this inadequacy is compounded by the air traffic flow. Airline schedules are thrown to the winds with unnecessary delays. Radar controllers in India seem to keep the air traffic flow further apart than required by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) rules.

Double the norm

The ICAO has laid down the minimum distance between aircraft as four miles for landing. Indian ATCs seem to keep more than double this distance. Delhi air traffic flow is all right as long as the operations are on, on both the runways. When the airport operates on a single runway, chaos sets in and the authorities are unable to cope up with the increased traffic.

The less said about the Mumbai airport, the financial capital of India, the better. When the secondary runway is the only one in use, the delays can be as much as 90 minutes. Often jet aircraft are held up for a turbo-prop aircraft to land. These smaller aircraft are slow and the ATC seems to maintain the same separation for them as for jets. On average, all airlines are burning an additional 350 to 600 kg of fuel for every take off and landing from Mumbai and Delhi. All this can be avoided only if the Indian ATC starts following the ICAO standards for separation between aircraft.

Efficiency contrasts

Aircraft movement is an indication of the efficiency of an airport. Last year over 800,000 aircraft movements were handled across the country. By contrast, airports such as of Atlanta and Chicago alone handled higher air traffic volumes during that period. They did this with only five and six runways respectively. Airports of Paris, Frankfurt and London handle in one month the same volume as the Delhi and Mumbai do in a year. London's Gatwick airport handles 245,104 movements with a single runway. The number is more than thrice the volumes that Delhi and Mumbai handle with four runways, in a whole year.

The Table giving the aircraft movements worldwide exposes the inefficiency of our airports and shows up the efficiency of operations at facilities elsewhere. .

The Chennai airport has joined the bandwagon too. The ATC there has coined a new expression, "Traffic Congestion in Radar". When aircraft ask for start up, they are informed that there will be a delay due to radar congestion because of a series of arrivals. The delays are of 30-45 minutes. Airline schedules are thrown out of gear and many passengers end up missing important meetings and connecting flights. This is in addition to the extra 350-500 kg of fuel burnt by each aircraft, while waiting for the congestion to clear. One wonders if they have taken a leaf out of the road traffic constable, allowing traffic only in one direction at a time! The second runway in Chennai should be used for turbo-prop aircraft that slow the flow on the main runway.

Runway condition

The reason cited by the Chennai ATC is the slippery condition of the main runway. There are heavy rubber deposits on the first half of the runway due to the landing of so many flights. International airports are supposed to get these rubber deposits cleared regularly. These deposits become lethal in rain due to the lack of braking action. Pilots of every aircraft landing at the Chennai airport the last fortnight complained of very poor braking action. Yet, the Airport Authority of India, which conducted a friction test on October 30, gave a figure of 6.9Mu as the braking coefficient. This is amusing as the international certification standards for different categories of runways are: 4Mu for a dry runway, 2Mu for a wet runway and only 7Mu for dry grooved runways. All aircraft manufacturers caution pilots that their data do not cover runway surfaces covered with rubber and paint. Either the friction testing equipment used by the AAI is faulty or the base figure has been set with a default value of 6!!

Airlines in India are being held to ransom by this inefficiency. Passengers are inconvenienced. Maybe, the airlines should start filing lawsuits against the aviation authorities for the losses they incur due to this inefficiency. Ryanair, the low-cost carrier in Europe, filed for damages for losses incurred due to the security check procedures at airports. Will our courts entertain such lawsuits?

(The author is an airline pilot with 19,000 hours experience and specialises in accident-prevention studies.)