With the onset of winter, Delhi airport authorities are gearing up to avoid disruption of air traffic due to foggy conditions.
The Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) has taken a view that information dispersal is the most important and has hired a call center (with a central helpline number), which will be operational within a week to intimate passengers of their flight status in real time.
The airport management is also planning to issue pamphlets with important data on fog as well as enquiry numbers for all the major airlines and the airport and DIAL has installed a flight information display system (FIDS) for faster dispersal of the flight information. This will be operational in two weeks.
DIAL is also in discussion with some entertainment providers to provide entertainment to waiting passengers.
?In workshops with the DGCA, the civil aviation ministry, the airlines and other stakeholders we have asked airlines to keep the airport informed of the delays in flights apart from rostering Cat III b compliant pilots for the Delhi routes in order to avert any delays and disruptions during fog operations,? Andrew Harrison, chief operating officer for DIAL said.
?The airlines have been given more parking bays (55 now) and more seating has been added for passengers waiting to be comfortable,? he added. The fog season typically starts in mid-December and goes on till February-end.
The DGCA has mandated that all airlines, including low-cost carriers, must be in a position to provide delayed passengers food and other refreshments if they are delayed more than two hours.
The airport will issue food coupons to passengers, which will then have to be reimbursed by the airline.
The airport has also devised a plan of action in case foggy condition goes out of control. Airside and landside coordination along with media coordination for better information dispersal has been panned.
Passengers have been asked to provide their mobile phone numbers so that they can be intimated by SMS on their flight status.
The meteorological department will provide the airport with weather updates every six hours while the air traffic controller (ATC) will provide the aircraft with an estimated time of arrival instead of just a number in the queue. There will also be more coordination between the apron control and the ATC.
Last year, the airport witnessed seven spells of fog including one that lasted almost 14 hours. The MET department has also instituted a system where its website will be updated on a daily basis with information on the fog.