Fog won’t haze your plans of taking off from Chandigarh and Amritsar international airport. For, the two airdromes of the region are all set to get CAT-III technology, which would ensure flawless flight operations even during fog.
Chandigarh and Amritsar airports have been included in the list of total 13 airports across India, including Jaipur, Kolkata, Patna and lucknow, which would soon become CAT-III compliant. Presently, Chandigarh airport is CAT-I compliant with 1,550 metres’ visibility, while Amritsar airport is CAT-II equipped with 300 metres’ visibility. CAT-III, the upgraded Instrument landing System (IlS) facility, ensures landings even in zero visibility. Among its kinds, CAT-III-C is the most advanced.
Seeing the passengers facing problems because flight delays during foggy conditions, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) along with Airports Authority of India (AAI) is carrying out the exercise.
As of now, only Delhi international airport is equipped with CAT-III technology, while the equipment installation work at the Jaipur airport is expected to be completed by July 31.
The efforts are being made to equip these airports with the advanced technology by next year, before the foggy season. Chandigarh airport comes under the Union Ministry of Defence, and has the “most basic IlS”. The authorities concerned have since long been demanding better and upgraded landing system for the city airport.
They argued that the improved landing system in Chandigarh would not only smoothen civil but also defence operations to places including leh. Even as the airports were made equipped with better landing facilities with upgraded technology, the problem of trained crew and aircraft compliance is a requisite. For CAT-III operations, a flight needs to have the aircraft CAT-III compliant and both the Captain and First Officer certified for the process.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), in 2008, issued strict instructions to all the airlines to have CAT-III trained pilots. However, owing to huge expenses involved in training pilots for only about 10 days of fog operations, many airlines stay away.
Available information suggests that apart from the Air India, most of the other airlines have just about a couple of aircrafts with CAT-III compliance to allow landing in 50-75 metres’ visibility.