The winter test

So far, thanks to the fact that he’s moved on the modernisation of both the Delhi and Mumbai airports as well as opened up the skies quite liberally, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has been seen as one of the Cabinet’s few performing ministers. Mr Patel’s real test, however, will come in the weeks ahead as the winter fog rolls into the nation’s capital—will the airport at Delhi get clogged again, as it has each year in the past? So far, the worrisome indications are that it will because little has changed in terms of upgrading landing and take-off capabilities in sub-normal conditions, or in terms of increasing the airport’s traffic handling capacity.

Thanks partly to the fact that, till recently, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) did not even have a full board of directors, and Chairman K Ramalingam had to perform the functions of the entire board, from planning to purchase and operations, AAI has not been able to instal the Advanced Surface Detector Radar that is vital to let air traffic controllers know that the surface area of the airport is clear during dense fog. Also, it is only now that AAI is talking of upgrading its CAT III A system, which allows landing in visibility of 200 metres, to a Cat III B system that allows landing even if visibility is a mere 50 metres. Past experience with the CAT III A has shown that it takes a few years before the system functions optimally, including the time it takes for airlines to train pilots to operate in a new system.

Even without the winter fog, the country’s aviation scene looks pretty messy, with traffic having outpaced system capacity and airlines multiplying faster than airports. Delays of anywhere up to an hour have become par for the course in airports like Delhi and Mumbai. Both these airports typically handle 25-28 flights an hour, compared to 40 per hour per runway in most international airports. Even if you factor in the improvements being planned—building more high speed taxiways to get the planes off the runways quickly and reducing the mandatory vertical and horizontal distance between aircraft as they land and take off—the airports will not be able to cope with the increased demand for at least the next couple of years. While few expect Mr Patel to be able to fix such an old problem in the year and more that he’s been at the helm of affairs, it is arguable that he could have done more than he has.

It does not help that his own actions have not always been helpful. Central to the solution was the Delhi-Mumbai modernisation plan taking off as planned. But, in this case, Mr Patel’s ministry changed the rules of the game midway, to put the responsibility of delays solely on the shoulders of the foreign partners—this led to high-profile walkouts such as by Singapore’s Changi Airports, giving the process a bad name even before it even began. Other areas that Mr Patel has focussed on have been related more to party politics than to developing the country’s aviation industry. Instead of focussing on Delhi and Mumbai, for instance, a large part of AAI’s current attention is to ensure that Pune airport is converted into an international one by December 12, the birthday of Mr Patel’s party chief Sharad Pawar. Another Patel plan which has got AAI working overtime is a flying academy in his constituency, again diverting AAI attention from the urgent problems at hand.