CAT III may guarantee smooth flying this year

New Delhi: December is certainly not the best time to fly in and out of Delhi. While the weather plays truant (mainly blinding fog from December 15 to January 15), air travellers are left to suffer.
This year last Saturday, (December 17) saw the first weather related disruptions which left nearly 200 flights originating out of Delhi delayed while thousands of passengers suffered as poor visibility led to delayed departures.
This year as per the statistics provided by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, (DGCA) the apex government body overlooking civil aviation safety, the airlines are better placed as far as Category III B or CAT III B trained pilots are concerned.
Under the CAT III B, aircraft to take off or land, aircraft can land on auto pilot when visibility is between 200 metres and 75 metres, and take off when visibility is 125 metres.
With many more trained pilots, passengers can hope for better on-time performance this year from the carriers that they chose to fly.
According to dgca, a total of 580 Indian pilots serving 10 airlines are trained for CAT III B operations covering a variety of aircraft.
While financially beleaguered state-run carrier Air India could be gasping for breath for staying afloat, it, however, has the highest number of CAT III trained pilots in command (395) and also co-pilots (282). Private carrier Kingfisher has 152 trained commanders and 120 co-pilots, whereas Jet has 132 trained pilots in command and 51 co-pilots for CAT II B conditions.
22/12/11 Samiran Saha/Tehelka.com

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Categories: airports Dec 2011