Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday said ‘war rooms’ will be set up at the airports located in the six metro cities — Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Chennai — to address any issues with regard to passenger inconvenience with immediacy. He added that sufficient CISF manpower availability will also be ensured at these airports round-the-clock.
This comes amid the recent spate of events which involve airlines and airports grappling with the issue of flight delays and cancellations due to weather conditions.
For Delhi’s IGI Airport, the Union Minister said the 29L runway has been made CAT III operational. He added that the main airstrip 28/10 will also be made a CAT III-compliant runway after the process of re-carpeting is done.
Runway 28/10 has been closed for scheduled re-carpeting since mid-September, according to news agency ANI.
The view on the Gurugram end of the 29L/11R runway was obstructed by a crane due to which it was downgraded to CAT I recently. The Delhi airport had written to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the contractors asking them to lower the cranes.
The cranes have been removed and now both ends of the runway are CAT III operational.
Category III (CAT-III) refers to a set of international standards for precision instrument approach and landing in adverse weather conditions. It involves advanced autopilot and ground equipment that enables aircraft to land in very low visibility conditions, such as dense fog or heavy rain.
On Monday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) stating that airlines may cancel, sufficiently in advance, flights that are expected to be delayed beyond 3 hours. The key SOPs announced included directions on cancellation policies, sensitising staff and providing real-time information to passengers.
Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday said the implementation of the SOPs issued by the DGCA will be monitored and reported regularly. He added that the civil aviation ministry has also sought “incidence reporting” thrice a day for the airports in the six metro cities.