Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) has recently garnered attention for unfavorable reasons. While passengers typically anticipate delays during winter due to poor visibility in the northern part of India. But this time , various additional factors coupled which resulted into chaos at Airports for airlines and passengers both. Let’s explain the series of interconnected issues, pushing the entire system to the brink of collapse.
Delhi has 4 runway and actually none is functional
It may sound like too much, busiest airport in India can’t afford downtime. Indira GIA has two CAT III-compliant runways but only one is Working. Minister of Civil Avaiation, Jyotiraditya wrote in X that due to poor visibility authorities were compelled to enforce a shut-down for some time even on CAT III runways.
“The decision was taken keeping passenger safety in mind, which remains the foremost priority for all in the aviation ecosystem,” minister further mentioned.
How Many Runways Delhi Airport Have ?
IGAI airport mentions them as India’s only airport with four runways in India. Only two of them are CAT III B runways ( 28/10 and the 29L/11R) that can handle Low Visibility operations. The other two runways, 11L/29R and 09/27, are not CAT III B-compliant runways.
Why Only one CAT III runway is working ?
Ministry of Civil Aviation(MOCA), has clarified on social media platform X, that out of 4 Runways only 3 runways are operational at Delhi Airport including a CAT III runway were handling flight operations as per their capabilities yesterday, however, with reduced capacity due to intense fog.
Concerned Minsiter JM Scindia also acknowledged the non-functioning of CAT-III enabled 2nd runway he mentioned @DelhiAirport has been asked to immediately expedite the operationalization of the CAT III-enabled 4th runway (in addition to the existing CAT III-enabled runway) to the satisfaction of the @DGCAIndia , in order to get approvals.
https://x.com/JM_Scindia/status/1746809516782678493?s=20
Other CAT-III enabled stirp is under service for almost 3 months.
How many Airports in India are CAT III Enabled ?
Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in Delhi has implemented CAT IIIB ILS, an advanced anti-fog landing system. In addition to Delhi, same technology is available in other northen India airports Amritsar, Jaipur, and Lucknow. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata has got CAT IIIB technology.
What is Cost of CAT IIB system in Airports ?
Reports suggest that establishing CAT IIIB system at an airport can incur an initial upfront cost of up to ₹10 crore, while annual maintenance expenses averaging around ₹50 lakh per month.
Difference Between CAT III-C VS CAT III-B
CAT IIIC, a more advanced system than CAT IIIB, enables aircraft to land even in situations of zero visibility. Airports equipped with this technology include JFK International Airport in New York and London’s Heathrow Airport.
Factoring numbers of rising air passenger, one comes up with question that why other airports don’t have same technology.
Three pillars to perform CAT IIIB system optimally
Despite having one functioning CAT-III runway, why Delhi airport is not able to handle the routine flight flow. There are three key factors require consideration for smother operation. They are :
- Pilot and co-pilot training on the system,
- Adherence of the aircraft’s cockpit to the system’s requirements,
- Compliance of the airport with the system’s specifications.
If one of them somehow not performing optimally then then system will take the beating. On 4 Jan’24, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued show cause notice to Air India and SpiceJet for rostering non-CAT III compliant pilots.
The notice was issued after 58 Delhi airport-bound flights were diverted due to low visibility on December 24-25 and December 27-28, said DGCA. Later during investigation DGCA found that 50 out of 58 diversion due to captain not trained for low visibility operation (CAT III-B).
Some airlines clarified that they put CAT IIT enabled trained staff on crew but on given dates (December 27-28) fog set earlier than scheduled window.
What are the Rules set by DGCA for safe landing in fog period
As per the regulator, the fog period is between December 10 and February 10 with the window for CAT III operations from 9 pm to 10 am.
That means that for 13 hours only two strips of Airport can be used. Currently, only one of them is functioning. That too can’t handle operations at zero visibility (IIT-C can handle zero visibility)
What is CAT-III ?
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.
For suitably equipped aircraft, different ILS Facility Performance categories are mentioned as below:-
There are three main categories of airport runways based on their instrument landing capabilities:
Cat I Operation:
- Precision instrument approach and landing.
- Decision height not lower than 60m (200ft).
- Visibility not less than 800m or a runway visual range not less than 550m.
Cat II Operation:
- Precision instrument approach and landing.
- Decision height lower than 60m (200ft) but not lower than 30m (100ft).
- Runway visual range not less than 350m.
Cat III Operation:
CAT III runways provide the highest level of instrument landing capability. They are further divided into three subcategories:
(a) CAT IIIA Operation:
- Precision instrument approach and landing.
- Decision height lower than 30m (100ft) or no decision height.
- Runway visual range not less than 200m.
(b) Cat IIIB Operation:
- Precision instrument approach and landing.
- Decision height lower than 15m (50ft) or no decision height.
- Runway visual range less than 200m but not less than 50m.
(c) Cat IIIC Operation:
- Precision instrument approach and landing.
- No decision height.
- No runway visual range limitations.