New air traffic system to help ease congestion

New Delhi: Domestic carriers such as Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher may now look forward to significant savings on account of faster clearances for landing and take-off . Their planes may not have to unnecessary hover at busy airports due to congestion as the government has expedited the process of putting in place a central flow management system (CFMS) by replacing the existing five flight information regions (FIRs).
The new system would provide advance information to the aircraft regarding the congestion at their destinations . This means that an aircraft would take off only when there is no congestion at their destination airport, thereby saving fuel. Most of the developed countries including the US and Canada have CFMS in their airspace.
Presently, there are four flight information regions (FIRs) — Delhi , Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai with Guwahati being the sub region of Kolkata. If an aircraft takes off from Delhi airport (meaning Delhi FIR) for Mumbai, it has no advance information about the congestion and air traffic flow at Mumbai. Since, it has already taken off from Delhi and the aircraft has no choice but to hover over Mumbai if there is congestion at the airport.
01/10/08 Economic Times

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Airports Oct 2008, Indian Aviation- In General Oct 2008, New Oct 2008