Room In The Sky

Given the enormous growth in air traffic in India over the last five years, and with projections indicating the same trend, the concern is not just about having bigger aircraft fleets and related infrastructure. Something far more basic—having additional airspace—needs to be worked out. So some of the airspace that’s now with the defence forces—which control some 30 per cent of total Indian airspace—may soon be made available for civilian aircraft.
Sources in the civil aviation ministry said the opening up of airspace for dual and/or flexible use could happen as early as December 2011. Discussions are on between the civil aviation and the defence ministries on what combinations could work. This has been accorded top priority as there has been rapid growth in civilian air traffic since the opening up of the economy.
According to aviation experts, there are advantages to sharing airspace. “Since defence controls so much of our airspace, it prevents straight flight paths, particularly on the routes between the north and the west. So opening of the defence airspace will help. Also, choice of optimal routes for commercial aircraft is currently restricted. Traffic jams in the sky lead to increase in flying time, additional fuel consumption, increase in maintenance costs, employee overtime, unsatisfactory on-time performance and inconvenience to the travelling public,” says Jyoti Rautela, a research analyst with Aviation Watch, published by the Infrastructure Power & Petroleum Association of India (IPPAI).
12/09/10 Amba Batra Bakshi/Outlook

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Categories: airports Sep 2010, Indian Aviation- In General Sep 2010