CAT out of cockpit

New Delhi: Delhi airport’s Category III B instrument landing system allows planes to land even when visibility falls to 50 metres, but domestic airlines are far short of equipping all their planes or training all their pilots to work the system.
National carrier Indian (Airlines) has done the most, having turned 54 of its aircraft Category III-enabled and trained 300 of its 696 pilots (43 per cent) in the system.
The results showed during the seven fog-ravaged days between December 13 and January 3, when it cancelled only six flights while the total for Delhi airport was 161 inward and outward flights cancelled and 120 diverted.
Category II allows landing at a visibility of 350 metres, but many airlines have failed to train all their pilots or equip all their planes for even this system.
Civil aviation ministry figures show that Jet Airways, which cancelled 22 flights in the same period, has 203 Category II-trained pilots (27 per cent) and 33 foreign pilots who are Category III compliant (4.4 per cent) on its roster of 750 pilots.
Sahara, which cancelled 19, has 50 Category II or III compliant pilots (20 per cent) while of Air Deccan’s 399 pilots, 93 are trained in Category II or III (23 per cent).
Kingfisher has 13 trained in Category III while IndiGo has 12, of whom nine are foreigners.
Jet said it planned to train all its pilots in Category III but admitted “this will be in phases” and did not spell out a timetable.
Sahara plans “to have all our 250 pilots trained in Category III standards by next winter”, said spokesperson Neeta Raina.
Training pilots in Category III costs about Rs 8 lakh per head – peanuts by airline standards. But it also means the pilot must be taken off the roster for weeks, which is certain to hamstring the airline’s operations.
07/01/07 Jayanta Roy Chowdhury/The Telegraph

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