Aam admi not to be hit by VIP flyers any more?

NEW DELHI: In a bid to cut down massive flight delays caused by VIP movements, the government finalized a series of steps to ensure that the common flyers’ wings are not clipped whenever the high and mighty take to the skies. It has now been decided that airports with multiple runways — Delhi and Mumbai— will restrict movement of scheduled commercial aircraft only on one airstrip while keeping the others open.

Which means flyers in and out of Delhi can hope to fly on two runways almost simultaneously with VIPs on any one of the three airstrips reserved for them at that time. At present, planes hover endlessly in air or stay firmly grounded till the VIP has taken off or landed. However, Mumbai’s cross-runways will mean that there can never be completely independent movement of both VIPs and the aam admi.

Flyers in and out of Delhi , and to some extent Mumbai too, regularly face long delays due to multiple movements by VIPs, happening within a short span of each other. Such VIP flights in close succession lead to extension of the three-minute ban on other flights. It has now been decided that agencies handling the timing of VIP flights of both Indian and foreign heads of state will coordinate movement to avoid close gap between them.