Efforts on to lower fuel losses in aviation sector

New Delhi: After the auto industry, the government has decided to investigate fuel losses in the aviation sector. The Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA) has commissioned the Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc) and the National Aeronautical Limited (NAL) to study the Bangalore and Delhi airports to find ways of increasing fuel efficiency in the aviation sector.
The six-month study will help set up benchmarks for best practices in managing airports. "We shall look at how to improve management of airports. There are three key areas where losses occur at the moment — excess hovering in the sky, taxiing around and being unable to achieve cruising altitude," said R Srinivasan, professor of the department of management studies, IISc, Bangalore.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is trying to refine ATC techniques to increase runway movement capacity and lower hovering time.
According to Srinivasan, if hovering was reduced by even five minutes for each plane at an airport that handles 100 flights per day, the industry would save about 4.83 million litres of aviation fuel costing about Rs 21 crore.
PCRA has already consulted the aviation ministry, the airport authorities as well as the Federation of Indian Airlines and taken them on board to ensure the study is suited to the needs of the industry.
05/11/07 Nitin Sethi/Times of India

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Categories: General Aviation Nov 2007