The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will review fog preparedness at Bangalore Airport on Monday. Meanwhile, it has issued specific instructions to Delhi Airport after flight delays on Monday owing to fog.
A person familiar with the development told Business Line : “Usually Bangalore does not face a fog situation similar to North or East India. But, this year, there were two-three days of fog. So, it is better to take steps in advance.” Though he said that Bangalore Airport has a CAT-I compliant runway, where aircraft cannot operate when visibility falls below 550 metres, the Website of the airport claims that aircraft can undertake normal operations at runway visual range (RVR) of 400 metres.
On Tuesday, the DGCA also reviewed the fog readiness at Delhi Airport, which witnessed cancellation of 22 outgoing and 25 incoming flights on Monday. On Tuesday morning no flight was cancelled or diverted, despite fog, he said.
“The situation on Monday was chaotic, so we asked the airport operator to take steps immediately,” he said. First, the airport operator has been asked to have a more updated flight information system. Second, it has been asked to tie up with some news channel to display live information on runway visibility range.
The DGCA was also displeased over non-availability of Udaipur and Bhubaneswar airports on Monday for flight diversion from Delhi. It has asked the Airports Authority of India to increase watch hour at these two airports. The two airports have been added to the existing list of alternative airports of Jaipur, Lucknow and Amritsar, where flights will be diverted due to inclement weather over Delhi.
The Delhi Airport operator claimed that its three runways are CAT-III B-compliant, which means flight operations are possible till runway visibility is 50 metres. There are 145 parking bays with CAT-III-B compatibility, 15 more than last year.
It also said that seating capacity at the new terminal, T3, has been increased from 12,000 to 13,150 and on T1D (for budget carriers) from 2,200 to 2,700.