Are airlines equipped to deal with the fog situation?

With North India being enveloped by a thick fog cover for the first time this year leading to diversions and cancellations of flights, the obvious question that arises is how can this be stopped or at least reduced during the peak winter months.

During fog, the airports experience what are called CAT III B conditions when visibility at an airport range from 50 meters to 174 meters. The conditions are called CAT III A when visibility is between 175 meters and 299 meters. India has around 3,600 pilots including 2,000 Pilots in Command and another 1,600 co-pilots who are trained to operate a flight under CAT III B conditions.

Sources in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation told BusinessLine that the number of CAT III B pilots domestically are “sufficient” for managing operations in India. They, however, declined to give the break-up of how many CAT III trained pilots each airline has in India.

A pilot with a private airline said while the number of pilots certified for low visibility conditions might be sufficient but “what needs to be seen is whether they are distributed proportionately between all the airlines. This needs to be ensured.”

Also because of rapid expansion, pilots do not have enough time to qualify for CAT III, said another pilot with a private airline.

CAT III A and CAT III B are the most severe weather conditions to fly in and are currently being faced at many airports especially in north India.

For an aircraft to take off visibility must be a minimum of 125 meters or more while for landing the visibility must be 50 meters or more.

A cross-section of pilots that BusinessLine spoke to said that merely looking at the number of CAT III B trained pilots as a way out of the situation is over simplifying the problem.
“For operations under CAT III B conditions the pilot, the co-pilot and the aircraft have to be certified. This is important because even if one of the three in the equation is not there operations cannot take place,” a pilot scheduled to fly from Singapore to Delhi said, adding, “many times it is an operational issue that while the Capitan might be CAT III B compliant, the co-pilot might not and with weather deteriorating fast this becomes a problem.”
Pointing out that there is no simple answer to the question as to why flights are delayed, another pilot with a private airline said it is not only about aircraft landing, it is also about aircraft taking off which can lead to flights coming in being diverted and those taking off getting delayed or cancelled.
31/12/19 Ashwini Phadnis/Business Line

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Fifty flights delayed, two cancelled at SVPI airport

Ahmedabad: People headed to meet friends and loved ones or just to party for New Year’s Eve were in for a massive disappointment on Monday, as some 50 flight departures were delayed at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International (SVPI) airport in the city. After parts of northern India came under a dense fog, poor visibility at various airports caused flights to be either cancelled, delayed or diverted.
Two flights from Ahmedabad, to Hyderabad and Bengaluru, were cancelled, leaving passengers in a tizzy. Alternative flights could not be arranged due to time constraints and operational issues triggered by the weather.

SVPI airport handled a total of seven flight diversions on Monday, besides its regular complement of 250-odd flights. “Five Jaipur-bound flights, from Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, were diverted to the city. Two Delhi-bound flights, from Bengaluru and Mumbai, were also diverted here,” said a source in the airport.

All diversions handled at SVPI airport were between 8am and 11am and flights began departing at 10am, with the last diverted flight departing at 2.30pm.

31/12/19 Times of India 

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Temperature slides to 2.3C, dense fog hits flight timings

Varanasi: Several flights were cancelled at Lal Bahadur Shastri International (LBS) Airport, as visibility dropped after heavy fog took over Varanasi’s skyline on Monday.

The city woke up to thick fog and sun remained out of sight throughout the day. The cold wave maintained its grip over the city. The minimum temperature was recorded as 2.3 degrees, while the maximum temperature was recorded as 9 degrees Celsius.

Accordign to LBS Airport spokesperson Ranjeet Verma, four flights — Indigo 713/711 (Kolkata-Varanasi-Mumbai), Indigo 712/716 (Mumbai-Varanasi-Kolkata), Indigo 499 (Varanasi-Bangalore), and Indigo 6635 (Varanasi-Delhi) — were cancelled. On December 28, two Indigo flights, which connected Varanasi to Mumbai and Kolkata were cancelled, while one IndiGo flight and another of Vistara Airlines were cancelled on December 26. Meanwhile, the GoAir flight between Varanasi and Mew Delhi would remain cancelled till January 5 due to operational reasons. In view of inclement weather, the district administration has ordered the closure of all schools and intermediate colleges till January 4. The Varanasi Municipal Corporation has set up night shelters at 12 locations in the city for the homeless.
31/12/19 Times of India

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50 flights from city delayed by 45 mins

Five flights to and from the city airport were cancelled; these include flights to Kochi, Hyderabad, Bangalore Following dense fog and unfavourable weather conditions, seven Jaipur-Delhi bound flights diverted to city
Heavy fog and bad weather in North India has disturbed air-traffic all over the country. Seven Jaipur and Delhi bound flights had to be diverted to Ahmedabad airport owing to the weather condition.
Not only that more than 50 flights from the city airport also got delayed by more than 45 minutes. Following weather and other operational reasons, at least five flights from and to city airport got cancelled, sources told Mirror.
"Seven flights had been diverted to Ahmedabad airport on Monday morning. Out of these, five were diverted from Jaipur airport while two were diverted from Delhi airport.
Diverted flights started coming to Ahmedabad airport from 8.20 am and continued to arrive till 11 am. They had begun returning to the respective destination airports from 10 am and continued to depart the airport till 2.30 pm. Following these diverted flights, city airport flights were also affected."
Flights which got cancelled include Indigo Ahmedabad-Kochi, Ahmedabad-Hyderabad and Ahmedabad-Bangalore flights. Mumbai-Ahmedabad and Delhi-Ahmedabad flights of Indigo airlines also got cancelled.
Asked about delayed and cancelled flights, Indigo spokesperson told Mirror: "Owing to the dense fog in North India our flights have been impacted across the country. We will continue to review the situation and provide real time updates on our social media platforms. We request passengers to check the flight status before leaving home and reach out to our customer care for queries."
SpiceJet spokesperson told Mirror: "One flight was diverted to Ahmedabad due to bad weather in Jaipur."
31/12/19 Ahmedabad Mirror

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Surat airport traffic likely to cross 1.5 million in 2019-20

Surat: Surat airport has made impressive growth in passenger traffic to domestic and international destinations this year.
For the first time, passenger traffic, which stood at 10 lakhs till November 2019, is likely to cross 15 lakh figure in 2019-20.
According to figures published by Airports Authority of India (AAI), Surat airport has achieved exponential growth in terms of passenger traffic. In November, passenger traffic was 1.44 lakh and stood at 10 lakh between April-November 2019 thanks to increase in number of flights in the last 18 months. At present, Surat airport is served by about 20 flights to various domestic destinations, including international, by SpiceJet, Air India, Air India Express, IndiGo and Ventura Airconnect.
Sources said Air India has announced commencement of a direct flight between Surat and Bhubaneshwar from January 20. The flights will be available every Sunday and Friday from Surat and on every Monday and Thursday from Bhubaneshwar.
The growth story of Surat airport started after a few industrialists from the textile industry offered bank guarantee of Rs3 crore to Air India for operating an Airbus between Surat and New Delhi. CR Paatil, BJP MP, lobbied with the loss-making national carrier, which was under immense political pressure to upgrade operations from the Diamond City.
31/12/19 Times of India

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Dense fog in North delays flights at Surat airport

Surat: Passengers at Surat airport had to face inordinate delays as dense fog engulfed Northern parts of the country on Monday.
Sources said that the flights arriving from Delhi, Jaipur, Bengaluru and Kolkata were delayed by one to six hours because of operational problems faced due to the dense fog at the airports in the northern parts of the country.
The Air India flight from Delhi arrived at 8am instead of its scheduled arrival time of 7.10 am. Spice Jet flight from Delhi arrived at 11.45 am instead of its schedule of 8.15; Kolkata flight of Spice Jet to Surat arrived at 3.15 pm against its scheduled time of 2.45 pm.
The Indigo Delhi-Surat flight arrived at 12.51 pm from its schedule time of 8.25 am, while its Bengaluru flight arrived at 6 pm from its schedule time of 1.20 pm on Monday. The Jaipur-Surat flight arrived at 3.55 pm from its schedule time of 3.15 pm and that the Delhi flight to Surat arrived at 6 pm from its schedule time of 5.10 pm.
31/12/19 Times of India

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Night continues to be cold in Chandigarh, 11 flights affected

Chandigarh: The minimum temperature on Monday for the third consecutive night continued to remain below normal even as a dense fog engulfed Chandigarh and its outskirts. Operations of at least 11 flights were affected from the Chandigarh International Airport due to adverse weather conditions in Delhi and Bangalore.

A 100-meter visibility was recorded on Monday morning which subsequently improved to 800 and 2,000 meters during the day, an official of the MeT department said. The minimum temperature recorded during the nights of Sunday and Monday was 3.5 degree Celsuis, 2 degree Celsuis below normal.

A spokesperson of the Chandigarh International Airport said, the Air India’s Mumbai Chandigarh flight was delayed by 02:30 hours due to low visibility in Chandigarh.

A total of 10 flights were affected due to unfavourable weather conditions at other stations. While four flights, including Delhi-Chandigarh GoAir, Air India Dharmshala-Chandigarh Indigo Delhi-Chandigarh and Air Asia’s Delhi Chandigarh were cancelled, and six flights, including Go Air Ahmedabad-Chandigarh, Indigo Bangalore-Chandigarh, AirAsia Bangalore-Chandigarh flight, AirAsia Delhi Chandigarh, Vistara Delhi-Chandigarh and Indigo Bangalore-Chandigarh were delayed.
31/12/19 Indian Express

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Fog in Delhi delays more than 28 flights at city airport

Chennai: Plans of hundreds of passengers on Monday went awry after more than 28 flights between Delhi and Chennai were delayed due to air congestion caused by dense fog in the national capital. Flights to other destinations were also delayed subsequently.
In Chennai, 14 arrivals from Delhi and 14 departures to Delhi were delayed. A flight to Bengaluru from Chennai had to be cancelled while five flights — from Bengaluru, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad were cancelled. Many of the early morning flights from Delhi reached Chennai much later in the morning.

The largescale disruption was due to poor visibility at Delhi, Gwalior, Varanasi, Jaipur airports. Domestic carriers use a single aircraft to fly to multiple destinations and hence flights to Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Patna, Bengaluru were delayed subsequently. Delays in flights from Delhi began on Sunday night.


IndiGo, SpiceJet, Vistara and Air India issued advisory to passengers warning them to check schedules on social media platforms of the airlines before reaching the airport. IndiGo in a statement said, “Owing to the dense fog in North India, our flights have been impacted across all of India. We request passengers to check the flight status before leaving home.” Similar statements were tweeted by other airlines.
31/12/19 Times of India

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Year-end tourists bear brunt of Delhi fog

Mumbai: Fliers heading out of the city for their year-end break have had to face delays with the heavy fog in Delhi holding up incoming flights, leading to a cascading effect.

Flights in Delhi were operating at the airport under CAT III B conditions, which meant the runway visual range was between 50 m and 175 m. Officials at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport said heavy fog across north India led to flight disruptions with multiple flights to and from Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai being delayed or even cancelled.

In a statement, IndiGo said, “Owing to dense fog in North India, our flights have been impacted across India. We will continue to review the situation and provide real-time updates on our social media platforms.” The airline requested passengers to check flight status before leaving home and reach out to its customer care.
Vistara said on Twitter its Delhi-Mumbai flight UK933 and Mumbai-Delhi flight UK996 were cancelled due to poor visibility in the Capital. Vistara along with GoAir, SpiceJet and AirAsia India said due to fog and poor visibility in Delhi, their operations might be impacted. They advised passengers to check their flight status before leaving for the airport.
31/12/19 Aditya Anand/The Hindu

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Dense fog over north India disrupts flights at Goa airport

Panaji: Nearly 25 arrivals and departures were affected at the Goa International Airport, Dabolim, as a thick blanket of fog engulfted parts of North India, especially New Delhi, on Monday morning. Nearly a thousand passengers found their year-end travel plans disrupted as some flights were delayed by more than five hours.
Bad weather and poor visibility due to fog in Delhi, Varanasi, Kishangarh, Gwalior and Chandigarh disrupted flight schedules. In order to reduce the inconvenience, private airlines issued advisories to passengers, asking them to re-check their flight status before reporting at the airport.
“Waiting at Goa Airport for Indigo flight 724 to Delhi. Flight delayed by 90 minutes. No apologies, no snacks,” tweeted a passenger. The AirAsia flight I5779 from Delhi to Goa usually lands at Goa at 7.50am but due to the bad weather in Delhi, the flight took off late and landed in the afternoon, at 12.30pm. Passengers scheduled to fly back to Delhi on flight I5778 who had cleared the check-in for their 8.20am flight, had to wait till 1.05pm to board the aircraft.

Similarly, Air India flight AI156 from Delhi to Goa, which was scheduled to arrive at 4.35pm landed only at 7.10pm. A Mumbai to Goa IndiGo flight 6E711 which was to land at 3.10 pm arrived at 6.10pm, while AirAsia’s Delhi-Goa flight I5775, which lands at 2.50pm took off several hours later from Mumbai and arrived at Goa at 7pm.
31/12/19 Times of India

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Fog grounds lone flight between Delhi, Ludhiana

Ludhiana: Rail travelers continued to suffer with nine trains being cancelled due to adverse weather conditions. The fate of air travelers was no better as the lone Air India flight between Delhi and Ludhiana was also cancelled due to poor visibility.
The lone Air India flight connecting the business hub to the national capital, which has been erratic for quite some time due to foggy weather and poor visibility, was cancelled for the day. Air India officials said the Delhi-Ludhiana flight 9837 was to carry 50 passengers while 40 passengers were booked on the return flight 9838 from Ludhiana to Delhi.
According to railway officials, 13006 Howrah-Amritsar Mail, 13151 Kolkata-Jammu Tawi Sealdah Express, 14605 Haridwar-Jammu Tawi Express, 14617/18 Banmankhi-Amritsar-Banmankhi Jansewa Express, 14631/32 Dehradun-Amritsar-Dehradun Express, 14673 Jaynagar-Amritsar Shaheeed Express and 22473 Gorakhpur-Amritsar Jansadharan Express trains were cancelled for the day.
The 12054 Amritsar-Haridwar Janshatabdi Express was short-terminated at Saharanpur and the corresponding train 12053 Haridwar-Amritsar, originated from Saharanpur.
30/12/19 Tribune

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West Bengal cleric threatens to block Kolkata airport; demands revocation of CAA

Kolkata: A prominent Muslim cleric in West Bengal has threatened to block Kolkata airport if the Citizenship (Amendment) Act is not revoked. He has urged Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to either move Supreme Court challenging the contentious citizenship law or bring a resolution against the Act in state Assembly.

While speaking to Times Now, Muslim cleric Abbas Siddiqui from Furfura Sharif, a holy place of Muslims in West Bengal, claimed that the citizenship law is unfair to the Muslim population of the country. He asked Mamata Banerjee to take immediate steps to stall the Act or else "she risks losing the support of Muslims in West Bengal."
He went on to add that all the protests that the West Bengal CM is leading in the state might be satisfactory for other people, but they are not enough to satisfy the Muslim population.
31/12/19 TimesNopwNews.com

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DGCA issues licences to 2,264 air traffic controllers

New Delhi: Pilots flying commercial aircraft in India will no longer carry a paper booklet, torn in many cases of those doing so for decades, as their licence. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday showcased smart licences it is switching over to, similar to driving licences issued in any states.

The first ever DGCA-issued licences to air traffic controllers (ATCO) of Airports Authority of India (AAI) were on Monday handed over by civil aviation minister HS Puri .
An audit by UN’s International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in November, 2017, recommended that aviation regulator DGCA should have oversight over the functions of ATCOs of AAI. The audit likened AAI issuing licences to controllers, who are its own employees, to an airline issuing licences to its pilots. Since aviation regulators issue licences to pilots and then the latter join airlines, ICAO recommended a similar provision for ATCOs.
After this, the aviation ministry had asked DGCA to issue licences and rating to air traffic controllers of AAI. “To enable licensing of ATCOs, the DGCA approved AAI’s Air Traffic Services Training Organisations at Prayagraj, Hyderabad and Gondia to conduct approved training courses for controllers. A total of around 2,400 ATCOs submitted their applications for issuance of licences to DGCA and as on date 2,264 licences have been issued.
30/12/19 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Hubballi continues to be K'taka's third busiest airport

Hubballi: According to the Airport Authority of India website, the Bengaluru airport also saw 32.42 lakh passengers either boarding or alighting international flights between April and November. There
was an increase of 3.61 lakh international flight passengers compared to last year. In the month of
November alone, the Bengaluru airport has handled 4.12 lakh international passengers.
The website also said that the 37 international airports in India saw 4.54 crore international
passengers, with Delhi Internation airport alone handling 1.20 crore of them.
Mangaluru Airport, the only other international airport in State, saw a fall in a number of
international passengers using the airport, as its footfall fell to 4.01 lakh passengers between April
and November, compared to last year when it was 5.13 lakh. In November 2018, 61,840
international passengers had been to Mangaluru airport whereas in 2019 November it was just 45,
742.
Mangaluru airport also saw a dip in domestic passengers during the same period compared to last
year. While 8.69 lakh domestic passengers either landed or took o from here in 2019, last year it
was 10.87 lakh.
Regional Connectivity Scheme (Udan scheme) has helped tire-II cities of Karnataka, with Hubballi
domestic airport continuing to hold on to its third-busiest airport in Karnataka position with 3.26
lakh passenger visiting the airport during the said period. This, however, is an increase of 20% of
passengers. In 2018-19 as many as 2.71 lakh passengers were handled by Hubballi airport. While
4,307 flights took o or landed at Hubballi airport in 2018 (April-November), in 2019 as many as
4,556 flights were handled here.
29/12/129 Pavan Kumar/Deccan Herald

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Halwara airport may start from June

Ludhiana: If everything goes as per plan, flights from Halwara airport may start from June next year, said a senior Airport Authority of India (AAI) official in the state.
Meanwhile, the land acquisition authority is expected to complete the process for the project by January-end.

A senior AAI officer said as per the recent directions of the AAI chairman, they would construct a boundary wall around the acquired area by March. He said efforts were being made by the ministry of civil aviation, Punjab, to start flights from Halwara between June and September next year and the Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) was working on the land acquisition process.

“We are trying to get portable cabins, temporary structures for departure, check-in and arrival halls for passengers. Those will be installed at Halwara after the boundary wall comes up. The deputy commissioner has also suggested to start operations as soon as possible. A high-level meeting was held at AAI headquarters in Delhi recently. GLADA is also in final stages of land acquisition. The authority is expected to finish it by January-end. The land is being acquired in Aittiana village, Raikot subdivision of Ludhiana district,” the AAI official added.

“A procedure has to be followed for land acquisition and it includes studying its impact on society and environment, among others. After issuing a notification, separate notices will be served on every landowner about acquisition and their objections would be sought. Then GLADA will organise a public hearing on January 10 and 11. After discussing with people, the land price will be calculated,” Ludhiana DC Pardeep Aggarwal told The Times of India.
30/12/19 Shariq Majeed/Times of India

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Colombo-bound flight halted on runway due to technical snag

Chennai: A Sri Lankan airlines flight bound for Colombo, with 177 passengers and six crew members, was stopped at the runway, moments before take off, following a technical snag at the Anna International airport here this evening.
 Airport sources said the flight entered the runway and was all set for take off at 1630 hrs, when the pilot noticed a technical snag. The alert pilot immediately halted the flight at the runway itself.
 Thanks to the timely detection of the snag, the 183 passengers had a narrow escape. The sources the flight would leave for Colombo after the snag was rectified.
 29/12/19 UNI

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We are issuing too many airport entry permits: Civil Aviation Minister

 
New Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Monday that the central government was issuing too many airport entry permits (AEPs) and it was time to restrict certain parts such as the baggage area to a specific set of AEP-holders.
"The fact is that we are issuing too many airport passes...I can understand that the airport access is wanted by tourist operators and so and so," said Puri, while launching the biometric-based AEP system on Monday.

"I also understand that if you suddenly curtail this you have a problem on your hands because those people say that tourism industry is already moribund and you are putting more restrictions," he added.

Currently, around 2 lakh employees of various stakeholders -- airlines, ground handling agencies, food chain operators, etc -- have AEP passes who move in & out of the airport on a daily basis.

Covering 43 airports of AAI and five joint venture airports at present, the biometric-enabled Centralised Access Control System (CACS) project will digitise the employee movement process.

Till date, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) - which works under the Civil Aviation Ministry - has been issuing laminated paper based AEP at the 48 airports.

The minister said, "I am not saying that they (tourist operators, etc) should be stopped. But even amongst them, how many people do you want at the airport to be?"
30/12/19 PTI/Outlook

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Delhi fog disrupts airport ops: 530 flights delayed, 20 diverted, 4 cancelled

New Delhi: Heavy fog disrupted flight operations at the Delhi airport on Monday with 20 flights diverted, four cancelled, and around 530 delayed till 12.52 pm, an official said.

Flights are operating at the airport under CAT III B conditions, which means the runway visual range (RVR) is between 50 metres and 175 metres.

Giving an update on flight operations at 12.52 pm, the official said 16 flights have been diverted and four cancelled as of now.

"Around 530 flights - which includes 320 departures as well as 210 arrivals approximately - have been delayed on Monday till 12.52 pm," the official added.

In a statement, IndiGo airline said,"Owing to dense fog in north India our flights have been impacted across India. We will continue to review the situation and provide real time updates on our social platforms."

The airline also requested passengers to check flight status before leaving home and reach out to its customer care.

Vistara airline said on Twitter that its Delhi-Mumbai flight UK933 as well as Mumbai-Delhi flight UK996 stands cancelled due to poor visibility in Delhi.
30/12/19 PTI/India Today

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Fog envelops Jammu, all 20 flights cancelled

Jammu: Intense cold wave and dense fog crippled the normal life across the Jammu region on Monday, forcing the authorities to cancel all flights operating from the Jammu airport.

According to officials, the dense fog badly disrupted the air traffic at the Jammu airport as all flights from Jammu were cancelled due to poor visibility.

At least 20 Jammu-bound flights were cancelled at the airport due to poor visibility, leaving the passengers in a lurch.
Heavy rush was witnessed at the Jammu airport throughout the day as the airlines were not being given clearance from the Air Traffic Control (ATC) due to dense fog since morning.

“All the flights were cancelled due to poor visibility. Airlines have initiated refund for the passengers,” said Pravat Ranjan Beuria, Airport Director, Jammu.

The Jammu airport has 20 flights, which operate for Srinagar, Delhi, Mumbai, Leh, Gwalior and Lucknow.

Similarly, train services also remained affected at the Jammu railway station where at least 12 trains were running behind the schedule by several hours, causing inconvenience to passengers.
30/12/19 Tribune

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Bengaluru-Mysuru-Kalaburagi Flight: Alliance Air launches direct service

In a major development in the aviation sector, state-run Air India's subsidiary Alliance Air launched a direct service from Kalaburagi in north Karnataka to Bengaluru and Mysuru in the state's southern region.

"The daily service between Kalaburagi and Mysuru via Bengaluru will be operated under the regional connectivity scheme (RCS) of the central government called Udan (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik)," said the official in a statement here.

Kalaburagi is about 580 km north of the southern state capital Bengaluru.
Built by the state-run Airport Authority of India (AAI) in partnership with the state government, the airport was opened for operations on November 22, over a decade after its foundation was laid on June 14, 2008.

"The regional airport has enabled direct air connectivity between the state capital (Bengaluru) and the city of palaces (Mysuru) with Kalaburagi, an important commercial and pilgrim centre in the state's norther region.

Spread over 567 acres of farmlands near Srinivas Sardagi, the airport has 3.25 km-long runway, making it the second longest in the state after the international airport at Devanahalli in north Bengaluru.
29/12/19 Prashant Singh/ZeeBiz

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India offers to commence flight connectivity with Batticaloa

As part of its measures for further improving air connectivity with Sri Lanka, India has offered to develop the Batticaloa Airport for flight operations between regional destinations, Daily Mirror learns. 
During the term of the last government, flight operations commenced between the Jaffna International Airport which was formerly known as the Palali Airport and Chennai. 
According to Industrial Exports, Investment Promotion, Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Prasanna Ranatunga, Indian High Commissioner Taranjit Singh Sandhu offered to extend air connectivity between Indian cities and Batticaloa. 
The airport was set up in 1958. However, the Airforce took control of the airport on March 27, 1983 due to the war situation. Recently, it was gazetted as an international airport. Currently, domestic flights are operated from the airport. 
30/12/19 Kelum Bandara/Daily Mirror

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Starting trouble for UDAN as 25 of 48 routes in Maharashtra yet to get flights

Pune: The regional connectivity scheme, popularly called UDAN, is yet to take wing in the state though the Centre announced it almost three years ago.
An Airports Authority of India (AAI) status report revealed that of the total 48 routes finalized in Maharashtra as part of the scheme, flights have started in 23 sectors. The remaining 25 routes have been taken up by different airlines, but they are still to start flights.

The Centre had launched the scheme in April 2017 to connect unserved and underserved airports and airstripsin thesmaller citiesto different destinations. In Maharashtra, around 29 such facilities had been listed for the airlines to choose from.

Of the six routes various airlines had chosen to start flights to and from the Pune airport, only two are currently operational. One of the routes is the Pune-Nashik sector where Alliance Air recently startedservice.Theother oneisthe Pune-Belgavi route, also started by Alliance Air.

Airlines such as IndiGo, Spice-Jet and Star Air were supposed to start flights to Allahabad, Bhavnagar (SpiceJet) and Hubli (both SpiceJet and Star Air). But these routes are yet to become operational, the status report stated.

“Starting troubles due to nonavailability of slots at the busy airports, inadequate infrastructure, delays faced by airlines in procuring additional aircraft and resourcing licensed crew are expected during theinitial years,” aviation analyst Dhairyashil Vandekar said.

“The service had shown promise and the 25-odd new routes started connecting hitherto unutilised airports in Nashik, Kolhapur and Nanded and others to follow must be looked at as a gain,” he added.

Sources said some airlines had failed to deliver, leading to further complications. “For example, Pune-Nashik flights had started but were shut after operational issues. The route eventually went to Alliance Air,” an airline source said.
29/12/19 Times of India

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Indigo and Spicejet issue travel tips for 8 cities due to bad weather

New Delhi: Due to the poor visibility caused by fog, several flights were diverted from Delhi Airport to other nearby airports earlier this morning, as the airport was enveloped in thick fog at around 6 a.m., as people familiar with the matter said.

The Delhi Airport Authority said that low visibility procedures are being carried out at the airport. Passengers are advised to contact the airlines for updated information, according to the Delhi Airport Authority.

The flights are operated at the airport under CAT III B conditions, which means that the runway’s visibility (RVR) is between 50 meters and 175 meters. Four flights were diverted today, ANI reports.
IndiGo in a travel note for the passengers said his flights were affected due to bad weather in Guwahati, Ranchi, Varanasi, Raipur, Agartala, Bagdogra, Bhopal and Dehradun.
29/12/19 Leora Naquin/Technoea

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After initial surge, Chennai-Salem Udan route sees 9% drop in passenger traffic

Chennai: Regional connectivity scheme Udan may have improved connectivity from Chennai to small towns, but the number of passengers seems to have fallen on the Chennai-Salem route.
The Salem-Chennai route, the only one under Udan to have taken off in the state, came into operation only after the state government exerted immense pressure on the ministry of civil aviation. TruJet launched services in March 2018 and the route saw good passenger patronage in the initial months. But, passenger traffic appears to have tapered off.

Statistics show a 9.4% decline in passenger traffic at Salem airport till November when compared to the corresponding period last year. “There was some initial enthusiasm, but that seems to have fizzled out. The airline needs to add flights to make it viable. Airlines like IndiGo or Spice-Jet should start services to ensure that the route becomes popular,” said an Airports Authority of India (AAI) official. There would be greater potential for passenger traffic if airlines take interest and connect Salem to Bengaluru or Hyderabad, he added.

Vellore and Neyveli are among other Udan routes that are yet to take off because of lack of interest among airlines.

Sources said the flight schedule for the Chennai-Salem route was not designed to suit the needs of traders.

“There should be a sameday return flight at a convenient time so it would interest traders. Otherwise, train travel is more appealing as the journey is only five hours,” said an official.

Air fare is also high on the only daily flight from the city. A one-way ticket costs ₹6,000 for 24-hour advance booking and ₹3,000 for a week’s advance booking. The potential for cargo also needs to be developed. This will help airlines sustain flights, said an official, adding that though the ministry was pushing for regional connectivity flights, the destinations had to be sold better.
28/12/19 Times of India

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Kolhapur-Mumbai air service resumes

Kolhapur: The Mumbai-Kolhapur-Mumbai air service resumed from Saturday amid phenomenal response from passengers. The service was stalled from the past three weeks due to a number of issues.
Kolhapur airport director Kamalkumar Kataria said that the TruJet flight from Mumbai arrived at 1.35 pm with around 55 passengers and left for Mumbai at 1.50 pm with around 60 passengers. The timings will remain the same for the rest of the operating days as well, he said.

“We have been informed by airline officials that the service will remain uni

Trujet Dec 2019nterrupted henceforth. Since the demand from the passengers for the said route is high, we hope that the service remains consistent unless there are any natural hindrances like fog or bad weather,” Kataria said.
A passenger said that the service has proved quite useful for industrialists as well as tourists. It will help garner more attention towards the city which, at times, is neglected due to the lack of connectivity to metro cities.
29/12/19 Times of India

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Bad weather delays 15 flights

Ahmedabad: Thanks to bad weather conditions in parts of northern India that caused poor visibility for aircraft movements, the departure of some 15 flights was delayed from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International (SVPI) airport in Ahmedabad.

Flights to Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Dehradun, Chennai, Goa, Kolkata, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar and Varanasi, among others were delayed due to operational reasons.

Sources said that bad weather in parts of the country led to delay in some flights and as a cascading effect, remaining flights connecting various destinations to Ahmedabad were also delayed.
29/12/19 Times of India

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Poor visibility delays 24 flights at Patna airport

Patna: As dense fog engulfed city, at least 24 flights were delayed at Jayaprakash Narayan International (JPNI) Airport here on Saturday.
Minimum runway visual range (RVR) of 1,000 metre is required for a flight for safe landing and 600 metre for safe take-off. According to a weather scientist at Patna Meteorological Department, the 1,000m visibility was achieved after 11am. “At 8am, the visibility was 100m. However, the dense fog cleared because of wind velocity,” the weather scientist said.

Patna airport officials said due to foggy conditions in morning hours, several incoming and outgoing flights were delayed. “Flights started departing from the airport after 11am. The only silver lining is that no flight was cancelled due to bad weather. GoAir’s flight between Delhi and Patna was cancelled due to operational reasons,” the official said, adding the flights were delayed by 30 minutes to three hours.

A SpiceJet executive said the airline’s morning flights to Patna from Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad were delayed due to bad weather in the city. “Our first flight touched down at Patna airport after 11am only after the visibility improved. As a precautionary measure, we had already informed the pilots about bad weather conditions in Patna,” the executive added.
29/12/19 Faryal Rumi/Times of India

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Delhi: Fog at Indira Gandhi International Airport forces six flights' diversion, Bengaluru on alert

New Delhi: Six flights were diverted from the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) due to fog-induced low visibility on early Saturday. According to sources, heavy fog had started to envelop the airport around 6 a.m. The flights had to be diverted as pilots were not trained to operate in CAT IIIB conditions.

"The low visibility condition lasted from 5 a.m. to 10.30 a.m. during which six flights were diverted. Landings and take-offs continued using CAT IIIB Instrument landing system during the period," sources said.

The airport has technologically superior CAT (category) IIIB ILS system, which allows compliant aircraft and trained pilots to land even when the runway visibility is just 50 metres. This year new ATC tower, thermal imaging cameras and first-of-its-kind 24X7 social media command centre are being used to manage operations during the reduced visibility conditions.

Meanwhile, the flights at Bengaluru airport are likely to be affected due to fog and poor visibility on Sunday morning, an official said on Saturday.

"Safe landing and smooth take-off on time depend on visibility in the early morning on any given day. The city weather is unpredictable and sudden heavy fog reduces visibility of the runway for pilots to land or take-off," an official of the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) told IANS.

As the airport at Devanahalli, about 40 km north of the city centre, was free from fog on Saturday, there were no flight dusruption. The airport witnesses around 60 flights between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m.
28/12/19 TimesNowNews.com

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Fog may delay flights at Bengaluru airport

Bengaluru: Heavy fog and poor visibility may delay arrival and departure of domestic and international flights at Bengaluru airport on Sunday morning, an official said on Saturday.

"Safe landing and smooth take-off of aircraft on time depend on visibility in the early morning on any given day. The city weather is unpredictable and sudden heavy fog reduces visibility of the runway for pilots to land or take-off," an official of the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) told IANS here.

As the vicinity around the airport at Devanahalli, about 40 km north of the city centre, was free from fog on early Saturday, there were no delay in arrival or departure of about 60 flights between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m.

"Poor visibility, however, on Friday due to early morning fog disrupted flight schedule of 67 aircraft, including 38 departures and 29 arrivals," recalled the terminal duty manager.

As a result, five city-bound aircraft were diverted, including three to Hyderabad and two to Chennai for safety reasons, as thick fog in the wee hours engulfed the sprawling airport, including its two runways.

Though the airport operator Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) has built the second runway with CAT III instrument landing system, it has not been made operational due to delay in regulatory clearances.
28/12/19 IANS/daijiworld

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Passengers Stranded In Chandigarh, Amritsar As Fog Delays 14 Flights

Chandigarh: Passengers were stranded at Chandigarh and Amritsar international airports on Saturday after several flights were delayed due to fog, officials said.
A total of 14 domestic flights, a majority of which were scheduled in the morning, were delayed owing to poor visibility, an official said.
Likewise, flights, largely bound for Delhi, were delayed due to poor visibility at the Amritsar airport. An Air India flight bound for UK's Birmingham was also delayed.
Severe cold wave conditions continued across Punjab and Haryana owing to cloudy skies and fog with some places recording near-freezing temperatures.
28/12/19 IANS/NDTV

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Air India to resume jumbo flight operations to Jeddah from Calicut

After an interval of over five years, Air India will resume its jumbo flight operations from the Calicut international airport to Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) from February 17.

Calicut airport director K. Srinivasa Rao told The Hindu on Friday that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) had given approval to the national flag carrier to operate direct flights initially twice a week on Monday and Saturday. The flight will land at Calicut at 7.05 a.m. and depart for Jeddah at 5.30 p.m. Bookings have already started, he said.

The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has already approved the proposal of Air India to recommence flight operations under Code E. It will conduct services on Boeing 747-400, a wide-bodied jet airliner.
28/12/19 The Hindu

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Alliance Air connects Gulbarga to Bengaluru under RCS-UDAN

New Delhi: Air India subsidiary Alliance Air on Friday commenced direct flight operations connecting Gulbarga with Bengaluru and onwards to Mysuru under the regional air connectivity -- UDAN -- scheme.

According to the airline, the flight operation has a daily frequency and is offered under an all inclusive one-way fare of Rs 2,645 from Gulbarga to Bengaluru and vice versa.

"The airline has deployed its 70 seater aircraft on this sector... With the addition of Gulbarga there are now 60 stations in Alliance Air''s ambit," the airline said in a statement.
27/12/19 IANS/Outlook

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Bad weather grounds 3 flights to city, delays 9

Mohali: Three flights were cancelled while three others arrived late by two hours at the Chandigarh international airport here today. Six other flights were delayed by 15 to 40 minutes.

A flight from Dharamsala, which is operated by Air India and was regularly getting late, was cancelled today. It could not take off from the source due to bad weather.

The GoAir G8-381 Mumbai-Chandigarh flight was also cancelled. The flight is being cancelled for the past three days after it had to make an emergency return to the source minutes after take-off as the pilot detected some snag in the aircraft. A morning flight from Delhi, which is operated by GoAir and was consistently getting late by over four hours, was cancelled today.
28/12/19 Tribune

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MIHAN India Limited, a mute spectator to blatant violation of parking rule at airport

MIHAN India Limited (MIL), that operates Nagpur’s Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport, has become a mute spectator to blatant violation of parking rule near terminal building. Parking for pick-up is not allowed, but nobody listens and parks vehicle even in the emergency lane.
MIL introduced new parking system in 2017 where the lanes are marked. There is an emergency lane close to the terminal building where emergency vehicles -- ambulance or fire tender -- can move. After emergency zone there is a free drop area used only for departure -- free drop-off of passengers. Only vehicles with passengers with bonafide tickets are allowed to enter this area. Vehicles are not allowed to halt for more than 5 minutes in this zone. Vehicles for differently abled passengers are allowed free entry/exit into this area.
If there is old-age patient and if the people accompanying him or her inform the security then MIL don’t force the time limit on them. Such vehicles can enter for free picking up in the free drop zone.
There are some visitors who wait for passengers in the zone with their vehicles. For such persons, the MIL has marked Premium pickup and drop area. It is near the terminal building to facilitate premium pick-up and drop-off facility. Visitors intending to use this zone have to pay charges while entering this zone. Passenger can park the vehicle for first 15 minutes by paying Rs 200. For extra time availed, if any, additional premium charges will have to be paid while exiting this zone. After every 15 minutes, they will have to pay Rs 300. It is here the problem arises.
28/12/19 Hitavada

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Borkar appointed ED in Vigilance in AAI

New Delhi: Suresh N. Borkar, General Manager–Vigilance, on promotion has been appointed as Executive Director-Vigilance, at Corporate headquarters Airports Authority of India, New Delhi and taken over charge on 20th December 2019. He has Joined AAI in May 1990 as Electronics officer and served at various airports at various levels in CNS discipline, as Airport Director, and General Manager- Information Technology. He holds Masters Degree in Engineering in the branch of Electronics and Communication.
He also holds I.A.P. degree from ACI/ICAO, Global ACI-ICAO Airport Management Professional Accreditation Programme (AMPAP). He has attended various training programme/ workshop/seminars in India and abroad as well as acquired at the relevant Proficiency/ratings on the CNS facilities.
27/12/19 millenniumpost

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IPS officer alleges misbehaviour at city airport

Patna: The controversial IPS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, Amitabh Thakur, on Friday accused the ground crew of a private airlines and CISF personnel of misbehaving with him while he alighted from a flight at Jayaprakash Narayan International Airport here in the morning.
Thakur told TOI over phone that he was forcibly asked to show his boarding pass by the ground crew.

“I told the ground crew that there was no reason to show boarding pass as I was getting down from the flight. However, they misbehaved with me and later called CISF personnel as well. Even CISF officers misbehaved with me,” Thakur alleged.

The IPS officer, who had accused former UP chief minister and Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav of threatening him over phone in 2015, said a CISF officer was not wearing his name badge on his uniform. “When I asked him about it, he replied that it was none of my concern,” said Thakur, who is presently posted as IG, civil defence in Uttar Pradesh.
Thakur said he reached Patna from Lucknow for an official work at around 9.10am, but could leave the airport at 9.40am due to the incident.
A senior CISF officer privy to the entire incident told TOI, on the condition of anonymity, that Thakur was travelling on a connecting flight to Kolkata from Lucknow via Patna. “A routine reconciliation process of passengers alighting from an aircraft at Patna and those inside was underway after the gates of the flight opened following landing. It’s a security measure. Thakur refused to show his boarding pass and asked to show him rules and regulations about it. The airlines crew even asked him just to tell his name, so that they could get it matched with the passenger list. But he refused, again,” the CISF official said, adding no one knew that he was an IPS officer.
28/12/19 Debashish Karmakar/Times of India

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Low visibility, fog delay 62 flights at Bengaluru airport

Bengaluru: Dense fog and low-visibility conditions coupled with air traffic congestion delayed 38 departures and 24 arrivals at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) on Friday morning.

Three flights slated to land in Bengaluru were, meanwhile, diverted to Hyderabad and two to Chennai. They include GoAir flight G8 621 from Kannur, SpiceJet flight SG 3301 from Chennai, AirAsia flight I5 738 from Delhi, IndiGo flight 6E 199 from Mumbai and GoAir flight G8 113 from Delhi.
Fog derailed the plans of hundreds of passengers as many missed connecting flights from Bengaluru due to the delays and diversions. A few international passengers on board the diverted flights lamented that they’d been travelling for more than a day and were yet to reach their destination: Bengaluru.

Rory Anthony Mitchell, who left Atlanta, US, around 4.45pm on December 24, was among the aggrieved passengers. Immigration issues at New York forced him to take a flight to Mumbai en route to Bengaluru. He reached Mumbai at 12.05am on Friday and took a 6.05am flight to Bengaluru, but was left stranded in the air and later at the Chennai airport due to inclement weather at KIA.
“Due to visibility issues, the flight which was supposed to reach at 7.45am was diverted to Chennai and we waited there for more than 45 minutes before beginning the journey back home. But unfortunately, we were in the air for more than an hour,” said Rory.
28/12/19 Times of India

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Telangana to develop 6 airports in state, seeks AAI help

The Telangana government sought the help of Airport Authority of India (AAI) to develop six airports in the state. The government asked to give a detailed report on an aeronautical survey for all the airports -- three greenfield and three brownfield. The government has plans to develop airports at Mamnoor near Warangal, Kothagudem and Adilabad district. While three more airports have been proposed at Basanthnagar in Peddapally, Jakranpally in Nizamabad and Gudibanda in Mahbubnagar.
It further asked the AAI if the developments are to be taken in public-private partnership (PPP) or by the state government or other tenders.
However, according to the sources, the Union Ministry of defence is interested in developing Adilabad airport while the AAI in Warangal airport. The state government which developed Shamshabad airport cannot develop any other airport within a 150 km radius i.e, Warangal according to the agreement it had with GMR.
27/12/19 Roja Mayabrahma/Hans India

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Parking scene at Kol airport starts changing for better

Kolkata: VIP cars flouting rules at Kolkata airport have been made to toe the line as hundreds of vehicles were pushed out of the ‘no-parking zone’ in front of the terminal’s arrival complex and made to park at the newly curved out VIP parking zone to the left of the driveway leading to the terminal.
TOI had highlighted on Tuesday how vehicles owned by politicians, government officials and their aides enjoy first class treatment at the Kolkata airport as they remain parked outside the arrival gates of the terminal building for hours without anyone booking them, much in contrary to the treatment meted out to vehicles of ordinary flyers, who are penalized for standing outside the terminal building for more than 15 minutes. A day after the report was published, cops had swung into action, requesting the VIP cars not to park in front of the terminal.

“We had a tough time asking VIP vehicles to move back to the designated parking zone over the last few days. From Thursday, some drivers of VIP vehicles started parking their cars at the designated parking zone while we asked drivers of other vehicles who were still parking at the ‘no-parking zone’ to shift to the designated place. Almost all of them agreed readily today. We have instructions from our seniors to continue the drive till all VIP vehicles start parking at the designated zone by themselves,” said an officer of Bidhannagar Commissionerate.

Being able to rein-in the unruly drivers of the VIP vehicles over the past few days, the airport authorities now also want to ensure the cars don’t get a chance to crowd around the terminal building again and continue to stick to the rules.

“There were a number of vehicles carrying VIP delegates from India and abroad who were in Kolkata for an annual conference. But we had given strict instruction to the parking agency as well as the cops to act and even penalize their vehicles if they park outside the terminal gate. The move worked and all of their vehicles were parked at the designated zone today,” said Kaushik Bhattacharya, the airport director.
27/12/19 Tamaghna Banerjee/Times of India

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Two Shirdi flights cancelled, air traffic normal at Pune airport

Pune: Flight operations to and from the city remained normal on Thursday barring a few moderate delays but two planes were cancelled at the Shirdi airport because of low visibility in the morning hours.
“SpiceJet cancelled two flights — to/from Chennai and Delhi to Shirdi — on Thursday because of the inclement weather conditions. As far as the visibility at the airport is concerned, things are still improving. A watch is being kept because takeoff and landing of different aircraft hinge on different visibility factors. However, it is unlikely that the airport will be affected as before,” an official told TOI.
Some passengers got hassled because of the flights’ cancellation. “We got the information (about cancellation), but it was a hassle because all plans, including hotel bookings, were done by us,” a passenger who was to come from Delhi, said.
“Due to bad weather in Shirdi, all departures/arrivals and their consequential flights might get affected. Passengers are requested to keep a check on their flight status,” SpiceJet stated in an advisory issued for the airport in the morning hours.
There was a complete suspension of flight movement at the Shirdi airport from November 14 to December 11 because of poor visibility issues. Both IndiGo and Spice-Jet, which have a total of 28 flight movements daily from the airport, had shifted operations to Aurangabad airport.
27/12/19 Joy Sengupta/Times of India

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Jewar International airport: Readying for a take-off

Almost two decades after the plan for a second airport in the National Capital Region (NCR) was conceived, work on the project is expected to get underway in February next year. Keeping in mind the growth in demand, the Uttar Pradesh government has set an aggressive deadline for completion of the Jewar airport project, targetting operationalisation of its first phase by 2023.

Implementation of the Rs 29,561-cr project would take place in four phases, with the last phase scheduled for completion by 2040. When fully operational, the Jewar airport in Greater Noida would be able to handle over 160 million passengers per annum (mppa), making it the largest airport in India. While the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in New Delhi has a present capacity of around 70 mppa, it is going to increase to 110 mppa once the ongoing project for its expansion is completed.
In what marks a first for the aviation sector since private investment in airports was allowed in 2006, a foreign operator, Switzerland’s Zurich Airport International AG (ZIA), has bagged the contract to develop and operate the Jewar airport, beating the likes of GMR Infra, Adani Enterprises and Fairfax Holdings. Outbidding its rivals by a significant margin, ZIA quoted a per passenger fee (PPF)—the critical criterion in the bidding process—of `401. Apart from operating the Zurich Airport in Switzerland, ZIA runs the Curacao International airport in Carribean Islands, the Bogota airport in Colombia, two airports in Chile and four in Brazil.
26/12/19 Arun Nayal/Financial Express

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Shivamogga’s wait for airport may finally be over

Shivamogga: The airport project at Shivamogga has got wings, again, with chief minister B S Yediyurappa taking up the project seriously. At a recent meeting in Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru, the chief minister directed the officials to expedite the works.
The project to build an airport at Shivamogga started much before the one in Kalaburagi did, but the same has been delayed due to various reasons, mainly the lack of political will.

Yediyurappa, during his earlier stint as the chief minister in 2008, had laid the foundation stone for the airport proposed on 900acre land at Sogane village, 10km from here. With Gali Janardhana Reddy holding the tourism portfolio then, Maytas Infra of Satyam Computers had bagged the projecRegional Dec 2019t. However years later, Satyam went into turmoil because of alleged financial irregularities, prompting Maytas Infra to back out from the project.

After Yediyurappa handed the project to Regional Airport Holdings International (RAHI) in 2010, its officials inspected the place at Sogane. They did not find the place feasible because of its proximity to Machenahalli Industrial Area having chimneys and mobile towers and the like. Following the observation, it was decided to lower the chimneys. Officials of Airport Authorities of India (AII) okayed to build 1.2km runway.

In the meanwhile, Congress leader from Kalyana Karnataka (formerly Hyderabad-Karnatak) region, Mallikarjuna Kharge, put in lot of efforts to get the PWD to build the airport in Kalaburagi. However, the Shivamogga project got a raw deal under the coalition government, of which Congress was a part. Because of this, the land has now turned a grazing land for farmers’ livestock — cows, buffaloes, sheep and goats. Abandoned buildings on the land have become a safe haven for drunkards and illegal activities. The gravel dumped by RAHI to build the runway has also disappeared.
26/12/19 Times of India

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Adilabad, Kothagudem emerge favourites for airport development

Hyderabad: With their location beyond any restricted airspace, Adilabad and Kothagudem emerged favourite sites for development of airports in Telangana.
In a preliminary study of six sites for development of airports in the State taken up by the Airports Authority of India, it was found that Warangal, Basanthnagar, Jakranpally and Mahabubnagar were not as suitable as Adilabad and Kothagudem. The study report, the copy of which was accessed by The Hindu, stated that both sites at Adilabad (Khanapur village of Adilabad mandal) and Kothagudem (Gollagudam and Peta Cheruvu villages) were located beyond any restricted airspace.
‘Hence Airspace and Air Traffic Service (ATS) routes to connect these sites (being considered for development of airports) with other airports can be developed,’ the report said. Operation of ATR-72 and Q-400 type aircraft can be started initially at these two places. Eventually, expansions can be made by upgrading the airports to operate bigger aircraft like A-320 and B-737, according to the report.
25/12/19 Marri Ramu/The Hindu

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With two runways, KIA targets 95 million fliers a year

Boosted by the addition of a second runway, the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) is now projected to cater to 95 million passengers per annum (MPPA) in the future, an upgrade from 65 million. The daily Air Traffic Movements (ATMs) is also expected to touch 1,500 over the next decade.
The Bangalore International Airport Limited's (BIAL) basis for this projection: Surge in air travel,
the introduction of new routes and additional flights to cater to this growth.
Once both the KIA runways are upgraded and operationalised by October 2020, the big growth will
begin to show. A BIAL spokesperson has indicated that the growth will be driven by mixed-mode
operations on the new runway and navigational enhancements.
The airspace will also be reconfigured with additional arrival and departure routes. "Based on
these improvements, our projection for the next decade is in the region of 1,350-1,500 ATMs per day."
Despite the ups and downs in the aviation market, the airport has seen a perceptible growth trend
over the last four years. Passenger volumes at the KIA grew by 12.5% and flights grew by 11.6% for
the period April-November 2019 over April-November 2018.
26/12/19 Rasheed Kappan/Deccan Herald

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Star Air's Next Stop is Indore Connecting Belagavi

Bangalore: Star Air, after spreading its wings in eight Indian cities spanning across five Indian states is now on the verge of connecting one more state under its airline's operations. Financial capital of Madhya Pradesh, Indore, is the next connecting destination of this promising aviation player. This airline, which has gained phenomenal success in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi-NCR, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat region of India, is now ready to win people's hearts of yet another city from next year. Star Air would start its non-stop flight services connecting Belagavi, Karnataka with Indore from 20th January 2020.

Indore and Belagavi are two important regions of India which till date are not connected with direct flight services. People who want to travel between these two cities (or any nearby locations of these cities) have to travel far, which creates hassle and much inconvenience during their journey and make the whole voyage unpleasant. With the new flight services, Star Air would not only become the first airline in India to connect these two vital regions, but also fulfil the long-standing demand of people living across the geography of these two cities. It is expected that millions of people from South and West Maharashtra, North and West Karnataka, and from many districts adjacent to Indore would be benefitted by this upcoming service. Especially, districts from Maharashtra like Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara, Solapur, Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri along with Goa and many districts from Karnataka like Belagavi, Dharwad, Karwar, Vijapur, Dawangere would be benefitted because of this connectivity.

Keeping people's demand and aspirations in mind, Star Air has decided to connect Indore with Belagavi. The airline has already opened the sales for this route from 14th December 2019. People can book the tickets from its website www.starair.in and even from various online platforms like MakeMyTrip, GoIbibo, Via.com, and Riya.com at an impressive introductory price of just INR 2999. Star Air will provide its direct flight services between Indore and Belagavi thrice in a week.

Star Air operates under the UDAN scheme. Hence, its seats are available at very reasonable rates,so that anyone can fly to his/her dream destination without much expense. Currently, it provides services to eight Indian cities like Ahmedabad, Belagavi, Bengaluru, Delhi (Hindon), Hubballi, Kalaburagi, Mumbai, and Tirupati.
26/12/19 PTI/The Week

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Poor visibility delays flights at Patna airport

Patna: Several flights at Jayaprakash Narayan International (JPNI) Airport, Patna were delayed due to poor visibility on Wednesday. Of 37 flights operating from the airport, 13 were delayed between 30 minutes to 4.30 hours while one flight was grounded due to technical reasons.
Lucknow-Patna-Kolkata IndiGo flight with around 140 passengers and crew members was grounded at Patna airport due to technical problems. The flight had reached Patna airport from Lucknow at 10.04am instead of 9.15am. However, a fault was detected in the engine of the flight after it landed at the airport.

Santosh Kumar, assistant general manager (air traffic management) at Patna airport, said the flight’s onward journey was cancelled due to technical reasons. “We have no further information about the status of the flight. Some technicians have come to look into the problem,” he said.

A chaotic situation prevailed at the airport’s terminal building when the flight was grounded and several flights were delayed under climatic conditions. Passengers flooded social media sites with complaints. They also shares videos of chaotic situation at the airport.
26/12/19 Fayal Rumi/Times of India

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Increase duty-free liquor quota: Airport operators

New Delhi: Private airport operators in the country have proposed to double the quantity of liquor a person can buy from duty free shops to four litres, on a par with countries like Thailand, Singapore and Dubai. In its proposal for Budget 2020-21, Association of Private Airport Operators (APAO) has said that sizeable business at duty free operations in South East Asia/Middle East region is through tourists that originate in India.
Further, Indian passengers purchase duty free goods outside India depriving opportunity to Indian duty free business. “Liquor allowance given in India is not at a par with liquor allowance in neighbouring countries/Asia Pacific countries,” the airports body has written to government ahead of Budget.
The APAO claimed that benefit of enhanced revenue will help airports bring down cost thereby passing the benefit of reduced cost to passengers.
26/12/19 IANS/Economic Times

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Transport officials take Uber, Ola drivers to task at airport

Mumbai: The transport department has started cracking down on drivers and cars running on cab aggregator platforms like Uber and Ola. During a week-long drive in October at Terminal 2 of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, 335 drivers were found without a badge and 35 without a licence.
A driving badge is issued by the regional transport office to commercial drivers after doing background checks and police verification. “It is a very serious issue especially because a driver needs to have his badge with them all the time. It is through the badge that the traffic police or we get to know whether they have had a criminal record or have been charged with any crime,” a transport department official said.
During the exercise, officials checked cars having an all India tourist permit, also known as T-Permit, who were primarily engaged with Uber and Ola. The department caught 990 errant drivers who were found flouting different rules and collected fines of ₹21.77 lakh. The officials said they plan to suspend the licences of the errant drivers.
Transport Commissioner Shekhar Channe said they had conducted the drive from October 15 for around a week. “We found several drivers plying their vehicles without a badge; some of them didn’t even have a licence. We plan to conduct similar drives at different parts of the State and at many airports,” he said.
26/12/19 Ajeet Mahale/The Hindu

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Latest addition to airport’s lost and found list: Babies!

Airports can be very harrowing, sometimes even for seasoned travelers. And with so many things to keep track of, you can easily forget your belongings. From IDs and gadgets to ornaments and bags full of money, each year, Indians forget an alarming amount of items at airports. And the newest addition to this list are babies! Recently, a real life Home Alone incident happened at the Delhi airport, when a couple forgot their kid in a trolley. However, unlike Kevin McCallister, this baby’s adventure ended quite early as the parents rushed back to the airport within an hour.
‘People forget items every day, but babies are latest addition’
Sharing the recent incident, a CISF officer tells us, “A couple requested us to allow them to go inside the airport since they had left their baby inside. We were quite surprised to hear this. After enquiring, we got to know that they offloaded the luggage but left their baby in the trolley. They realised it while they were in the cab. Since this could have been an excuse to enter the airport, our team searched the premises and found the baby.”

A similar incident happened last year as well. A couple forgot their four-year-old girl at the airport and it was only after the CISF contacted her parents that they came to pick her up. While forgetting babies at airports is a rarity, CISF officials say passengers forget valuables daily at airports. Hemendra Singh, PRO, CISF, says, “People forget items such as bags containing lakhs of rupees, gold and silver ornaments, laptops, cameras, phones, almost every day. If someone can forget their child at the airport, valuables are no big deal.”
26/12/19 Niharika Lal/Times of India

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Jet Airways' closure, Kannur airport dent Mangaluru air traffic

Bengaluru: Mangalore International Airport (MIA) is seeing a sharp drop in passenger traffic after the closure of Jet Airways and the launch of Kannur International Airport (KIA) in the neighbouring Kerala.
 The table-top airport in coastal Karnataka has taken a hit both in terms of aircraft movement and passenger traffic, according to the latest figures from Airports Authority of India (AAI).
 The two airports, on the Arabian coast, are about 175 km apart. While it was expected that the Kannur airport would eat into the business of Mangaluru’s airport as the latter was also catering to Kannur and Kasargod districts in Kerala and Kodagu in Karnataka, few expected the drop to be so steep. As a result of fewer airlines operating, airfares to and from Mangalore (Mangaluru) have gone through the roof. In January, the Kerala government cut sales tax on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) sold at Kannur airport to 1% for a 10-year period.
 This made the greenfield airport attractive for airlines as ATF sold at Mangalore airport attracts a levy of 28%. “New airlines are not showing much enthusiasm to launch from Mangalore,” said an AAI official, unwilling to be identified.
 25/12/19 KR Balasubramanyam/Economic Times

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Mumbai: Planes to take off from Juhu to take solar eclipse pictures

Mumbai: For the first time in the country, an eclipse will be captured from the air on Thursday. Making it happen are two city organisations, MAB Aviation in Vile Parle and Space Geeks, a group that promotes space and astronomy.

MAB Aviation CEO Arvind Jadhav said two aircraft would be deployed to photograph the eclipse. One is a Beechcraft C-90, which will fly at an altitude of 10,000 feet, and the other is a Cessna 172S, which will operate at 2,000 feet.
Jadhav said both planes would take off from Juhu aerodrome around 8.30 am and head towards the northern part of the city, proceed over Shirdi, capture the eclipse and return at 9.45 am. He said it would not be possible to photograph the eclipse over the city because of heavy air traffic.

“We have to choose an area where there is little air traffic and Shirdi was the best choice,” he said.

He said both planes would fly the same route at different altitudes. On board both would be a team of photographers and, possibly, scientists, astronomers and celebrities.
25/12/19 Srinivas Laxman/Times of India

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What India should do to make its regional airports more viable

The Indian government is yet again making a push towards connecting unserved and underserved airports via the UDAN policy (now in its fourth phase) while preparing for the privatisation of an additional six airports. Even so, the challenge of developing regional airports remains. The Airports Authority of India has spent over Rs 1,100 crore on this effort yet the facilities and operations at these airports remain woefully inadequate. While the rhetoric is high, traffic levels are low. Viability is suspect. And consequently, airlines are reluctant to include these airports in their networks. What will it take to change this?

Historically, a regional airport is one that sees traffic of fewer than one million passengers per year. For India with a total of 449 airports, the majority of airports are in this category. Those with scheduled services sometimes see footfalls of as little as 7,000 passengers. Most regional airports operate at a loss.

Because traffic is the lifeblood of any airport and revenue generation is mostly linked to traffic, these miniscule traffic volumes effectively mean that smaller airports are challenged to provide an adequate return. By the numbers, estimates for the Airports Authority of India (AAI) indicate that 75 percent of the airports owned by AAI are registering losses – most being regional airports. With the profitable airports being privatised, AAI is set to receive a stable revenue stream which can then be deployed towards developing regional airports. This in addition to the healthy cash-balance that is in excess of $2 billion. Thus indications are that heavy investment into developing small regional airports will likely be a focus area for the future.

But along with developing infrastructure, there also has to be an effective strategy geared at developing traffic, tourist footfalls and connectivity. On this front, several avenues remain unexplored.
25/12/19 Satyendra Pandey/CNBC TV18

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Brick kilns won’t operate within 8 km of Srinagar Airport: HC

The High Court Tuesday directed Government of India (GoI) and Jammu Kashmir Government to ensure that no brick kiln is permitted to operate their furnace, generating smoke, within 8 kms from the centre of Srinagar Airport runway.
The division bench of Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Sindhu Sharma directed the authorities to ensure that no brick kiln is permitted to operate their furnace or undertake any activity whereby smoke is generated in any manner within 8 kms from the centre of the Srinagar Airport runway.
However, the bench directed that brick kiln owners can undertake other activities necessary for their business other than the smoke generated activities.
The direction was passed to Union Ministry, Civil Aviation; Airport Authority of India; Indian Air Force and JK government through Chief Secretary.
The court directed Chief Secretary, JK to take immediate action to ensure that no un-registered brick kiln owners are permitted to undertake any kind of activity.
The authorities were directed to ensure that the directions passed by the court are strictly implemented.
The directions were passed after counsel Ateeb Kanth submitted that complete prohibition imposed on brick kiln to operate near the Airport is causing grave hardship to the brick kiln owners.
25/12/19 Rising Kashmir

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23 flights delayed, as pilots held up by CAA protests

Ahmedabad: Widespread protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) across different parts of the country were also one of the reasons for flight movements getting disrupted. Airline spokespersons say their pilots could not reach the airport in time at various destinations due to road blockage, forcing airlines to arrange for alternate crew members, which also triggered delay in flight movements.
Some 23 flight departures were delayed from the city airport on Monday — 11 operated by GoAir, seven by IndiGo airlines and five by SpiceJet. Apart from bad weather and poor visibility, CAA protests in Delhi, Lucknow and Kolkata, among others, too added to the delay in flight movements, which had a cascading effect on flight operations to other destinations including Ahmedabad.
“A combination of factors such as inclement weather, low visibility and anti-CAA protests in certain parts of the country have disrupted multiple flights across GoAir’s network. This was further aggravated with flight duty time limitations (FDTL) of the crew,” said a GoAir spokesperson.
Flights to Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Chennai, Bengaluru, Nagpur, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Indore, Varanasi and Goa, among others, operated by these three airlines were delayed from 30 minutes to 3 hours and 40 minutes, confirmed sources.
24/12/19 Times of India

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IATA for early adoption of airport slot norms in India

IATA is in talks with the Indian civil aviation officials to adopt the worldwide airport slot guidelines which will help new airlines get slots at various airports in the country.

Once adopted, more international airlines will be able to fly into India, connecting more cities worldwide and it could also help the government’s UDAAN scheme.

Lara Maughan and Dimiter Zahariev, the authors of the IATA’s worldwide airport slot guidelines (WASG), told BusinessLine that the slot guidelines have become the backbone of how the airlines plan their schedules together. “It is important to have these guidelines as airports have increasingly become congested,” Maughan said. They also said that it is important for India to have an independent co-ordinator to monitor the airport slots and apportion them to all the airlines equally.

Maughan and Zahariev have worked around the existing airports and their infrastructure to open up more slots, primarily to accommodate new entrants. “While creating more infrastructure has always been a challenge for airports, it has not prevented more airlines being launched,” Maughan said.
23/12/19 K Giriprakash/Business Line

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India’s ‘tallest’ Christmas tree greets passengers at Delhi Airport

Flyers boarding flight from Delhi airport (Del) or arriving in the national capital are being greeted by India’s ‘tallest’ artificial Christmas Tree, GMR-led Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) said on Christmas eve. An artificial Christmas Tree has been installed at approach road to Terminal 3 to wish travellers merry Christmas! With an aim to create a festive ambience filled with fanfare and enthusiasm for the passengers travelling during the Christmas and New Year’s eve, Delhi Airport has been beautifully decorated.

Indira Gandhi International Airport is decked up with Christmas decorations, starting even before one enters any of the terminals of Delhi airport. The “Tallest Christmas Tree” has been installed on the Delhi Airport’s Terminal 3 (T3) Departure road. The Christmas Tree at Delhi Airport is a 101-feet structure. It is made of over 20,000 Christmas ornaments and 8 lakh pine grass. 80 men worked round the clock for over 2 weeks to create this.
“Christmas fever grips Delhi Airport, once again! The airport welcomes you with India’s tallest majestic Christmas tree on the T3 departure road and several other Christmas decorations at the entrances. The security hold area witnesses a never seen before 18ft Moving Santa, which has already captured the hearts of children and adults alike. A Rotating tree depicting Santa’s Toy Factory and a Ferris wheel placed at the terminal add to the Christmas Vibes at Delhi airport,” DIAL CEO Videh Kumar Jaipuriar said.
24/12/19 Debjit Sinha/Financial Express

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Direct flight to Mumbai, Hubballi: Pralhad Joshi

Air India will operate a direct flight from Hubballi to Mumbai beginning next month. According to the post on the Facebook account of Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, the flights will operate on every Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from January 20. It will leave Mumbai at 9.25 am and reach Hubballi at 10.25 am. In the return direction, the flight will leave Hubballi at 11 in the morning and reach Mumbai at 12 noon.
Though Indigo and Air India are already operating flights from Hubballi to Mumbai, they halt at Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Chennai. However, when contacted, the local officer of Air India told DH that there had been no official information about the operation of the direct flight.
24/12/19 Deccan Herald

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VIP cars cock a snook at airport parking rule

Calcutta: Cars belonging to senior functionaries of various governments continue to be parked right in front of the airport’s terminal in violation of rules.

Metro on Sunday spotted a number of vehicles — some fitted with beacons and others had boards fixed on their windshields announcing that they belonged to the government — parked in front of the terminal for around 40 minutes or more.

Vehicles are allowed to stay on the airport premises for 10 minutes. If any car stays for a longer period, marshals deployed by the private agency that runs the airport’s parking lot are to collect a fine of Rs 400 from the driver.

On Sunday, so long this newspaper was at the airport, there were no marshals to collect the fine and no cops to shoo away the VIP vehicles parked for long durations.
Sources said the policemen who would patrol the airport premises and look out for rule-flout cars have been deployed elsewhere to prevent any flare-up over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and National Register of Citizens and to manage the rush during the Christmas-New Year period.

“A few weeks back, following a meeting with officials of various departments, police were asking the drivers of rule-flout VIP cars to park in the designated area on the premises and turn up in front of the terminal only when the fliers were ready to leave. But there has hardly been any police deployment for a few days and VIP vehicles have returned to their old ways,” an official at the airport said.
24/12/19 Snehal Sengupta/Telegraph

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Over Rs 300 cr invested in airport infra in FY''20

Mumbai: The government on Monday said it has invested over Rs 300 crore in the airport infrastructure till November this fiscal.
In an official statement, the aviation ministry also said while as many as 10 airports commenced operations in 2019, 335 routes have been awarded, covering 33 aerodromes during the year. "Rs 304.49 crore has been spent on upgradation of existing and new airports from April to November this year. "Also, 10 airports became operational till December 7 in 2019, of which four are underserved (Lilabari, Belgaum, Pantnagar and Durgapur) and the remaining ones unserved (Kullu, Kalaburgi, Kannar, Dimapur, Hindon and Pithoragarh)," the release said.
According to the ministry, approximately 3.4 million passengers flew under the government''s regional connectivity scheme, Udan, till date, with 134 routes commencing operations between January and October. As many as 335 routes were awarded during the year, covering 33 airports, comprising 20 unserved, three under-served and 10 water aerodromes, the release added. "It (Udan scheme) has a direct bearing on major airports since the smaller airports have been connected to various big cities. The travelling time has reduced drastically and public at large is benefited for the purpose of tourism, medical emergencies and religious shrines, among others," the government claimed. Airports such as Belgaum, Prayagraj, Kishangarh, Hubli and Jharsuguda, launched under the Udan Scheme, were the busiest in terms of traffic during the year, the release stated. The government said the fleet size of the domestic carriers surged to 624 from 529 when Jet Airways ceased operations in mid-April. The total number of operational aircraft of major scheduled airlines stands at 624, which is more than the aircraft operational at the time of Jet Airways in business, as per the release.
23/12/19 PTI/Outlook

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Poor visibility hits flight operations at Patna airport

Patna: Flight operations at Jayaprakash Narayan International (JPNI) Airport, Patna remained disrupted for the second consecutive day on Monday due to poor visibility and other operational reasons.
According to sources at Patna airport, of 39 flights operated Monday from Patna airport on Monday, nine were delayed due to poor visibility and bad weather conditions, while a GoAir flight was cancelled due to operational reasons.

Passengers seemed restless after three-hour delay in arrival of Chennai-bound flight of SpiceJet (SG-323/324). Angry passengers were seen making rounds of the airline’s counter to enquire about the flight. Chennai-Patna-Channai flight arrived at city airport at 3.13pm against its scheduled arrival time of 12.20pm and departed at 6.22pm.

Sudhir Singh Shrivastava, a flyer, said the airline did not intimate the passengers about the delay. “They even failed to update the correct timing on display board. No executive of the airline helped the passengers when they enquired about the flight,” he said.

A SpiceJet executive said the flight was delayed because of bad weather conditions in Bengaluru. “All other flights departed from Patna airport on time,” the executive added.
24/12/19 Faryal Rumi/Times of India

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Weather, crew shortage play havoc with flight plans from KIA

Bengaluru: Low-visibility conditions at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi has  upset the travel plans of many as a number of flights were cancelled or suffered massive delays from Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) on Monday. Apart from bad weather, the crew shortage suffered by GoAir airline compounded the problems.

Seven flights from KIA to New Delhi were cancelled, leaving many passengers stranded at the airport. Two GoAir morning flights from Bengaluru to New Delhi and one flight to Mumbai were cancelled. Flights to Delhi -- G8-113 and G8-119 with departure timings of 5.50 am and 8.15 am, respectively -- were cancelled from KIA.

Another two flights to Delhi suffered massive delays: G8-116, supposed to take off at 7.30 am left after a delay of 4 hours and 35 minutes, while G8-118, scheduled to depart at 8.55 pm has been rescheduled to leave at 11.10 pm.

The GoAir flight G8-395, supposed to depart for Mumbai at 8.10 am, was cancelled. It has come to light that 18 GoAir flight across the country to various destinations were cancelled on Monday (up to 7 pm). Among them were incoming flights to Bengaluru from Delhi (G8-113), Mumbai (G8-317) and Patna (G8-373).

IndiGo flights to Delhi from KIA that were cancelled were: 6E-5132 (5.10 pm departure), 6E-5138 (7.15 pm) and 6E 5127 (10.30 am). One Vistara flight (UK-820) with a 5.45 pm departure from Bengaluru was cancelled.
24/12/19 New Indian Express

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Kolkata: Fog hits flight operations for an hour as visibility plunges

Kolkata: In the first major fog-related disruption at Kolkata airport, several early morning flights that were to depart or arrive in Kolkata were delayed due to poor visibility. Altogether, 17 flights were affected during the hour-long period when visibility plunged.
Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air near the earth’s surface. It is a low-lying cloud and is heavily influenced by nearby bodies of water, topography and wind conditions.

Fog forms when the difference between air temperature and dew point is less than 2.5. Fog begins to form when water vapour condenses into tiny liquid water droplets that are suspended in the air. “The factors at the airport on Sunday perfectly suited the conditions for fog formation,” said a meteorological department official.

The dew point is the temperature to which air must be cooled to become saturated with water vapour.

IndiGo Airlines that operates over 110 flights a day from the city was the worst hit with seven flights delayed by 30-60 minutes. Three flights each of Air India and SpiceJet and two GoAir flights were also delayed by the fog.

Two incoming flights had to be diverted. A GoAir flight from Singapore was diverted to Nagpur while a Biman Bangladesh flight returned to Dhaka due to the poor weather condition in Kolkata.

After the commissioning of the advanced version of instrument landing system (ILS) last year, pilots trained in CAT III-B operations and flights equipped with requisite technology can land in visibility as low as 50m. However, lack of experience among a section of pilots to fly in low visibility situations means that most prefer to operate only when visibility is over 250m.
23/12/19 Times of India

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IndiGo set to introduce flights from Gaya-Delhi and Gaya-Chennai routes

Gaya: Privtae operator IndiGo will be soon introducing flights on Gaya-Delhi and Gaya-Kolkata-Chennai routes. The airlines has made a formal request to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for permission to operate the Delhi flight in the evening.

The Gaya-Kolkata- Chennai proposal is said to be in the planning stage. As of now, Gaya airport has facilities for a single shift eight-hour operation. The evening slot demanded by the airlines will mean that if approved, the airport will have to operate in two shifts. Earlier, the IndiGo wanted a slot between 1 to 2 in the afternoon. The request was denied as the airport is overworked during that period.
According to AAI sources, the private airliner wants the flight to be scheduled for departure from Delhi between 6.30 -7.00 pm and the return flight between 8.30 -9.00 the same evening. If everything goes as per schedule, the operation will begin on February 5, 2020. Pre-operation formalities and paperwork is being done.
Airport director Dilip Kumar said that the CISF has already sanctioned additional forces for two shifts. The director hoped that deputation of additional forces by the CISF will be soon made.
Altogether 160 CISF personnel of different ranks are deployed at the airport. An additional of about 100 personnel are required for two shift operation. Sources also say that the AAI needs another 25 officials including those skilled in Air Traffic Control (ATC), communication navigation and fire-fighting etc for a two shift operation. Regular personnel to man these important positions are required and this cannot be outsourced, said an AAI official.
23/12/19 Abdul Qadir/Times of India

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AAI seeks additional land for VSS Airport expansion

Bhubaneswar: The Veer Surendra Sai (VSS) Airport at Jharsuguda will require around 178 more acres of land for expansion. The additional patch of land will be used for the installation of approach light and navigational equipment.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) had raised the issue during a meeting called by civil aviation secretary P S Kharola here recently. The AAI had said that a survey will be conducted soon and the actual requirement of the land will be intimated to the state government. After the survey, necessary permission will be accorded for the installation of the approach light and navigational equipment. Now the airport is spread over 1027 acres of land, an official communication said.
The VSS airport became operational in September last year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the facility in Jharsuguda, the industrial western Odisha town, which is now connected by air with the state and national capital. It was built at a cost of Rs 210 crore, of which Rs 75 crore was contributed by the state government.
The AAI has said that of the total land allotted to it by the state government, about 119 acres of land is yet to be transferred in its name. In August, the VSS airport had upgraded its air navigation services by installing a doppler very high-frequency omni range (DVOR) technology. The new aids now help the air traffic control (ATC) share information with the aircraft to define air traffic control routes.
23/12/19 Times of India

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New flight from city to Chennai, Hyderabad

Visakhapatnam: Indigo airlines is going to operate a new flight 6E 7281/7282 and 6E 7283/7284 in Chennai - Visakhapatnam - Hyderabad - Visakhapatnam – Chennai route from December 23.
Members of Andhra Pradesh Air Travellers’ Association (APATA) said that there is a huge demand for flights in this sector. Initially, when the time slots were submitted for the operation of the Indigo flight, naval authorities had not approved it even though DGCA had given the approval. APATA members then urged the state government to intervene and resolve the issue of denial of peak-hour slots. They were then asked to look into other time slots. Since the slots were not approved by the Navy, a new schedule with new timings was submitted by Indigo, which was later approved.
O Naresh Kumar, vice-president of APATA said, “With the introduction of the new flight, the number of flights will go up to 78.”
23/12/19 Times of India

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Will Not Allow Amit Shah Out Of Airport When He Visits Kolkata: Bengal Minister

Kolkata: West Bengal Minister and state president of Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind Siddiqullah Chowdhury on Sunday said Home Minister Amit Shah will not be allowed out of the airport whenever he visits the city, if the
Citizenship Amendment Act is not immediately withdrawn.
Mr Chowdhury said the contentious law is against humanity.

"We may not allow him (Shah) to step out of the city airport if necessary. We may gather one lakh people there to stop him," he said at a Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind rally against the CAA.

Reacting to his remarks, BJP's West Bengal unit chief Dilip Ghosh told PTI that Mr Chowdhury has made such "provocative comments" in the past, too, with the "tacit support of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee."
"How can a state minister issue such a threat? If they (Shah, PM Narendra Modi) are stopped from moving around in the city, then imagine the situation of others who don't share its (Trinamool Congress) views? Stop playing with fire," Mr Ghosh said.
The state's library service minister claimed that Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind''s movement would be democratic and peaceful.
22/12/19 PTI/NDTV

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Poor visibility hits Ludhiana’s only flight

Ludhiana: Dense fog has affected the only flight operating from the city. The Ludhiana-Delhi flight, which operates on four days of the week, was cancelled for the second time in 12 days on Saturday.

Earlier, the flight was cancelled on December 10. A source at the Sahnewal airport said the 72-seater ATR flight between Ludhiana and Delhi could not operate due to low visibility at the Sahnewal airport.
An airport official said visibility for landing at Sahnewal airport has to be 1,500 meters, but it was 1,000 metres when around 2.30pm, 10 minutes before the flight’s arrival. The source said the flight could face more cancellations if the foggy weather continued.
The flight operates on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. It arrives in the city from Delhi at 2.40pm, after starting from there at 1.40pm, and then departs for Ludhiana at 3.05pm, reaching Delhi at 4.15pm.
23/12/19 Shariq Majeed/Times of India

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Increase low visibility operations window at IGI Airport when visibility declines, DGCA to airlines

New Delhi: Following the early onset of fog on Friday (Dec 20) and significant flight disruption caused by that, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked airlines to increase the window of low visibility operations to and from fog-ridden Delhi Airport. Airlines need to mandatorily roster pilots trained for CAT IIIB landing and low visibility take off (LVTO) at IGI Airport for 13 hours daily between 9 pm and 10 am from December 10 to February 10. “We have directed airlines to constantly monitor weather and increase this window of rostering pilots trained to operate in fog to and fro Delhi when there is a declining visibility trend by planning early,” DGCA chief Arun Kumar said.

Following Friday’s experience, airlines have accordingly been further advised to “increase fog period requirement from as far as possible to before 9 pm and constantly monitor weather and coordinate with other agencies when a reducing visibility trend is shown.”
22/12/19 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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New flights to Hyderabad, Chennai from Visakhapatnam

Visakhapatnam: IndiGo airlines will be operating new flights to Hyderabad and Chennai from Visakhapatnam from Monday.
IndiGo will operate 6E 7281/7282 and 6E 7283/7284 flights in Chennai-Visakhapatnam-Hyderabad-Visakhapatnam-Chennai route on all days from Monday. With their introduction, the number of flights will go up to 78 with increase in frequency to and from Visakhapatnam.
Timings of new IndiGo services are as follows: Arrival from Chennai at 5.50 am and departure from Visakhapatnam for Hyderabad at 6.10 am.
23/12/19 New Indian Express

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Now, second Bengaluru-Mysuru flight from this week

Bangalore: The Air travel between Bengaluru and Mysuru will be further be enhanced with the commencement of a new flight this week.
Air India’s subsidiary Alliance Air will be starting daily flights between Mysuru and Kalburgi via Bengaluru from December 27.
The flights will run six days in the week (expect Tuesdays) and depart from Mysuru at 8.30 am and land in Bengaluru at 9.10 am.
From Bengaluru the same flight will depart at 9.50 am and arrive at Kalburgi at 11. 25 am.
Similarly, from Kalburgi the flight will depart at 11.50 am and arrive at Bengaluru at 1.30 pm.
From Bengaluru the same flight will depart at 2 pm and arrive at Mysuru at 2.50 pm.
On Tuesday the flight will depart from Mysuru at 10.25 am and arrive at Bengaluru at 11.05 am. From Bengaluru the same flight will depart at 11.40 am and arrive at Kalburgi at 1.20 pm. From Kalburgi the flight will depart 1.45 pm and arrive at Bengaluru at 3. 25 pm
The same flight will depart from Bengaluru ay 3.45 pm and reach Mysuru at 4.40 pm.
23/12/19 Bangalore Mirror

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Fog at Kolkata airport delays flights

Kolkata: In the first major fog-related disruption at Kolkata airport, several early morning flights that were to depart or arrive in Kolkata were delayed due to poor visibility. Altogether 15 flights were affected during the hour-long period when visibility plunged.?
?Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air near the earth's surface. It is a low-lying cloud and is heavily influenced by nearby bodies of water, topography, and wind conditions.
??Fog forms when the difference between air temperature and see point is less than 2.5?. Fog begins to form when water vapor condenses into tiny liquid water droplets that are suspended in the air. "The factors at the airport on Saturday perfectly suited the conditions for fog formation," said a meteorological department official.

?IndiGo Airlines that operates over 110 flights a day from the city was the worst hit with seven flights delayed by 30-60 minutes. Three flights each of Air India and SpiceJet and two GoAir flights were also delayed by the fog.
?
?Two incoming flights had to be diverted. A GoAir flight from Singapore was diverted to Nagpur while a Biman Bangladesh flight returned to Dhaka due to the poor weather condition in Kolkata.
?
?After the commissioning of the advanced version of instrument landing system (ILS) last year, pilots trained in CAT III-B operations and flights equipped with requisite technology can land in visibility as low as 50m. However, lack of experience among a section of pilots to fly in low visibility situations means that most prefer to operate only when visibility is over 250m.
22/12/19 Tamaghna Banerjee/Times of India

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