Aviation ministry moves to stop flight delays

According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the country’s aviation regulator, one in every five flights operated by big airlines reported daily delays all through September. With comparatively fewer flights, low-cost carriers like IndiGo, Paramount Airways and GoAir performed better with one in 10 flights getting delayed.
Taking note of the rising number of flight delays at major airports, the civil aviation ministry decided to take defaulters to task. In a circular sent earlier this month, the ministry directed the Mumbai and Delhi airport operators, airline officials and air traffic controllers (ATCs) to send daily reports on on-time performance (OTP) and the reasons for delays. OTP is defined as a flight departing or arriving within 15 minutes of the scheduled time. “We have been meeting every day to monitor deviation from schedule and to analyse the reasons,” says Manish Kalghatgi, spokesperson, Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd (MIAL).
This is the ministry’s second initiative to maintain flight schedule discipline. Earlier, the airlines had to submit their performance data to the DGCA on a monthly basis. “We received a directive for a daily analysis from the ministry in June. Till then, we had a task force to conduct checks on various airports during peak hours. That probably was not as tough a measure for airlines as this is,” says a senior DGCA official, who did not want to be identified.
To check delays, the panel has chalked out four major parameters—ATC delays, airline procedures, infrastructure problems and network delays. A combination of many factors, flight delays can be attributed to 1) Too many aircraft wishing to use a runway at the same time, 2) Long runway occupancy time—the time an aircraft takes to get ready to take off or vacate the runway after landing, 3) Flaws in departure area, runway and taxiway design and 4) ‘Mix’ of arriving and departing aircraft, including ‘mix’ of aircraft types and performance capabilities.
25/10/09 Neha S. Bajpai/The Week

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Oct 2009