Ministry of Civil Aviation DGCA reviews fog situation at Delhi Airport

The DGCA was informed that a lot of ground congestion was experienced on Terminal 2 side as landing minima during CAT IIIB operations is less than the take-off minima due to which aircraft are permitted to land without any departure at the same time. He was also informed that domestic airlines by and large did not experience any problem in their first departures.

Following decisions were taken to avoid this situation:

a. Pilots of international flights will be informed through Air Traffic Information System, an automatic broadcast system, that they may experience delays of one to two hours due to likely non-availability of parking bays during Cat IIIB conditions.

b. The Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) will inform the Air Traffic Control (ATC) about non-availability of parking bays.

c. DIAL will make necessary arrangements to assess the flight delays and accordingly display in the terminal building regarding delay and rescheduling of flights for passenger information.

d. DIAL will liaise with ATC on half hourly basis with regard to allocation of parking bays.

e. DIAL will convene a meeting of ground handlers to assess their ground handling capacity and explore pooling of resources amongst them.

f. As indicated in the Fog Management Guidelines, ATC may accord priority to the diverted flights and the concerned ATC units must take permission from Delhi ATC before clearing the departure.

g. For management of parking bays, there should be coordination and exchange of information between ATC and DIAL for effective slot allocation of the rescheduled flights.

h. These decisions will be applicable during Cat IIIB conditions

i. All agencies should coordinate with each other to address the above issues.

The above decisions are in continuation to the earlier meeting held in DGCA on 5 January, 2010 and is for the information and compliance of all concerned agencies.

(c) Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. Date posted: 11-Jan-10