Air India made 23 emergency landings this year, all at IGI

New Delhi: Till this June, the country’s national carrier Air India reported 23 emergency landings in the domestic sector, all of them at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. On the other hand, all the other domestic airlines put together reported just six emergency landings, with only one at the Delhi airport.
Amidst all sorts of safety and financial concerns, however, Air India officials say the carrier is struggling with a defective fleet of 30 aircraft—19 of which were released by Airbus in 1989 and the remaining in 1991—which forces the airline to have more ‘precautionary’ landings than younger fleet. The figures have been revealed in response to queries sought by Newsline from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation under the Right to Information Act.
National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL), which runs Air India, operates close to 110 domestic flights out of Delhi each day. With 22 emergency landings out of Delhi till June 30 this year, the figures are less alarming if we consider that every 900 flight operations see a precautionary landing.
06/09/10 Geeta Gupta/Indian Express

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Categories: Air India Domestic Sep 2010, airports Sep 2010, NACIL Sep 2010, Safety Sep 2010