Find out what the airport's plan is.
It's winter — and the dreaded season of flight delays and cancellations is here. December and January are the worst. Last year was particularly bad, with more than 900 flights at New Delhi's IGI airport delayed between November 30 and December 3 alone.
However, this time IGI airport has a plan.
To continue flight operations without any glitches, it has adopted a host of measures, confirmed Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), the joint venture company that runs the airport.
To enhance operational efficiency at times foggy conditions are at their worst, a new GPS-based navigation system has been put in place for airside vehicles at all the four passenger terminals —T3, T2, T1D and T1C.
RK Jenamani, director-in-charge of the meteorological department at the IGI airport, said, “The newly introduced GPS-based navigational system will help guide the aircraft during dense fog.”
DIAL CEO I Prabhakara Rao said the Delhi airport has eight such navigational vehicles.
Besides providing regular updates on departure and arrival times of flights, the system will also display weather-related information on Master Antenna Televisions at the terminals.
"That apart," Rao added, "three runways — 28, 29 and 11 — at the airport have been certified for CAT-III operations to allow landing of compliant aircraft with visibility as low as 50 m.".
Two help desks have also been set up at the terminals' entrances, where information on cancellations and delays will be provided on the spot.
The facilities available at T3, T2 and T1D for foggy conditions will provide passengers with timely information and other amenities.
"Low Visibility Procedures [LVP] for handling air traffic control [ATC] during foggy conditions have been actioned for all the ATCs at the airport," said AK Bharadwaj, Delhi ATC general manager.
Measures are also in place for better collaborative decision-making during foggy conditions, with the active involvement of the airlines and DIAL.
However. according to Jenamani, the fog is expected to hit around December 17 this year. It is only then that the efficiency of these measures will be tested.
Here's hoping...
