Srinagar Airport sans vital weather gear

Srinagar: Notwithstanding frequent bad weather conditions in Kashmir, the Srinagar ‘International’ Airport sans one of the vital weather equipments which could enhance the efficiency of air operations and passenger safety at the ‘sensitive’ aerodrome, especially in turbulent times.
Highly placed sources, well-versed with the civil aviation requirements, told Greater Kashmir that in the wake of frequent bad weather and mountainous terrain in the Valley, Srinagar airport should have the Digital Automatic Terminal Information System (D-ATIS) to enhance the air operations and the passenger safety.
The D-ATIS, they said, is the ground-based equipment which allows pilots and flight-crews to receive and read Automatic Terminal Information text messages rather than take the same manually through the Air Traffic Control (ATC).
“If the D-ATIS is put in place at the airport, it will facilitate pilots to take the Meteorological reports after every 30 minutes. Right now a pilot has to depend upon ATC officer to inform him about weather updates at the aerodrome, which is an old phenomenon,” said the sources. “The installation of the new equipment would cut down the human element of the issue. With manual information, there is possibility of a communication gap between the sender and the receiver. You may sometimes not be able to hear proper information. So to be accurate, it is important to have this equipment installed.”
Sources said the Srinagar-based AAI should consider installing the equipment, which doesn’t cost much. “It costs only a few lakh rupees which can be easily affordable by the AAI. Such equipments have been installed in many airports in India, including a couple of defence enclaves,” they said.
22/04/11 Faheem Aslam/Greater Kashmir

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Categories: Airports Apr 2011