Traffic congestion takes the fizz out of air travel

New Delhi: The Delhi airport, which used to handle 525 take-offs and landings a day just a year ago, today has to deal with more than 650 aircraft take-offs and landings everyday. In the peak hours of the morning and evening, the capital's airport handles as many as 40 flights in an hour.
Realising that there is little scope for more flights to come in or leave from the overworked airport, the government has ordered a cap on the number of flights from or to Delhi and Mumbai this summer. Besides, the government has stopped issuing clearances for new scheduled airlines till the major airports revamp their infrastructure to be able to cater to the additional flights.
A dozen scheduled airlines flew about 32 million passengers in 2006, nearly 45 per cent more than the year before.
Another eight scheduled airlines are waiting to take off. The airlines in India are estimated to have placed orders to buy between 400 and 450 new planes.
In the last four months, 12 Cessnas, two Beach, four King Air, two Gulfstreams, three Augustas and 1 Hawker were among the aircraft imported into India for private use.
Naturally, India's metro airports are finding it hard to handle the rush of flights.
13/05/07 Jayanta Roy Chowdhury/The Telegraph

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Categories: General Aviation May 2007