New Delhi: Flyers have had a better time this winter as compared to earlier years. An increase of almost 12 per cent in the number of pilots trained to operate domestic flights in foggy conditions and better communication systems at airports around the country have meant less inconvenience for flyers.
Till December 31, the domestic airline industry had over 2,110 pilots capable of operating aircraft in Cat III conditions or in dense fog conditions compared to about 1,900 such pilots at the end of December 2011. CAT III conditions are said to prevail at an airport when visibility is under 500 m and not less than 50 m.
Incidentally, in 2008, there were just 781 pilots trained in CAT III landing procedures.
As in the past, the maximum number of CAT III trained pilots are with Air India (668) followed by Jet Airways (495) and then IndiGo which has 444 such pilots taking up the third spot.
03/01/13 Ashwini Phadnis/Business Line
