Hundreds of new planes flying in. But where’s the space?

NEW DELHI: Stretched to the limit in handling air traffic at busy metros despite scheduled commercial airlines collectively having less than 400 aircraft, India is staring at a nightmarish logjam at its airports as airlines are slated to bring in hundreds of planes in the coming years. From carriers not getting additional arrival and departure slots even today to questions like where will the new planes be parked, has set alarm bells ringing.

TOI has accessed the minutes of the meeting of top officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the airlines from September 7 to 9 to finalise slot allocation in the coming winter, which reveal a worrying airport infra crunch that threatens to worsen as airlines add planes to their fleets.

During the meeting, the AAI asked the DGCA to form a capacity-planning and management body with representatives from airlines, airport operators and air traffic control to decide on "measures to enhance runway capacity". This demand was made by AAI's executive director (air traffic movement) P K Mishra to DGCA joint DG Lalit Gupta along with the advice "that capacity is to be enhanced at a reasonable cost".

"In order to meet the infrastructural requirements for aircraft to be acquired, AAI needs to plan for development of infrastructure at its airports. All airlines have been requested to submit aircraft acquisition plans along with a plan for positioning of aircraft at AAI airports for night parking. So far, only a few airlines have submitted their aircraft acquisition plan," the minutes say, adding that "aircraft with similar call sign are not permitted within one hour of each other".



Airlines say they are not able to get slots even at the moment at some airports. "Mumbai airport is running to capacity and the city is looking at getting its second airport several years after the first one has got choked. Delhi, despite its three runways, has no free slots in peak hour. All these curtail the choice of flights for passengers," said a senior airline official.

The minutes quote Spice-Jet's AVP Debashis Saha as saying: "The proposed Bengaluru and Mumbai airports runway closure should not be done simultaneously. The airport operator should give commitment that the works will increase the runway capacity."