Bird menace hikes airlines costs at Delhi

New Delhi: The bird menace at the Delhi airport is posing a big problem for airlines, as there have been several instances of aircrafts being forced to abort landing at the last minute due to excessive bird activity on the runway. "Apart from the inconvenience and scare that it causes to passengers, the 'go around' for a second landing takes a good 15 to 20 minutes to complete and burns up around 1,000 litres of additional jet fuel," a senior pilot of a commercial airline told Mail Today.
Sometimes there are several aircrafts in the queue for landing and this leads to a cascading delay for other flights, with the accompanying wastage of fuel getting multiplied. With international prices of crude shooting up to $90 a barrel and the oil companies jacking up fuel prices, the extra fuel burn, which costs around Rs 50,000, is something that commercial airlines can ill-afford at a time when they are struggling to break even.
20/12/10 S.P.S. Pannu/India Today

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Airports Dec 2010, Safety Dec 2010