ATC to give real-time info to airlines on flight status

New Delhi: Poor financial health of airlines could mean a double whammy for passengers this fog season. The aviation ministry held a meeting with
all airlines on Friday to gear up for the annual three-month chaos that the Met department says will set in this year on December 10 and last till February-end.
When low cost carriers (LCC) were being warned by the ministry honchos joint secretary KN Srivastava and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) chief K Gohain not to repeat past mistakes of depriving free tea, coffee or snacks to delayed passengers, one leading LCC cited its cash crunch as a problem in doing so. At this point, the two instructed Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd (DIAL) to give food packets to stranded passengers and send the bill to the LCC concerned. DIAL had some comforting words for airlines as it said food packages would be made available for different price range.
Airlines were told IGI now has two CAT III-B compliant runways that can handle 65 flights an hour in good visibility and as many as 42 in foggy conditions. Airlines were asked to roster CAT-III trained pilots for duty in Delhi that time.
Most importantly, the Air Traffic Control (ATC) will now give real time information to airlines about the status of flights so that in case of delays the latter can inform passengers and they don't congregate at the airport to get stuck there for hours. The Met department will also give online information on visibility at all airports so that airlines can get some idea about possible delays or disruptions at other places too and inform passengers accordingly.
01/11/08 Times of India

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Categories: Airports Nov 2008