AAI ties up with US body to ease congestion

New Delhi: In a bid to ease massive air traffic congestion at Delhi and Mumbai, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has tied up with US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to develop satellite-based navigation system for managing the ever-growing traffic in these places.
The new system, which will be implemented in a year, is expected to lead to significant increase in capacity — and if all goes as planned, even lower flying time to these cities.
"Currently, planes are directed by ground-based navigational aids. So they go from one tower to other and after reaching the next tower, they are told the route they have to take. This leads to a rather circuitous path. On the other hand, Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation will lead to the path being defined on take off itself and that would lead to a slight reduction in flying time," said an official.
AAI chairman K Ramalingam's decision to have satellite-based navigation with FAA's help comes close on the heels of an Indo-US Aviation Partnership Summit that ended here this week. 29/04/07 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Apr 2007, Foreign Apr 2007, Safety Apr 2007