Metro airports, being private, are out of AAI's operations control network

CHENNAI: Every second counts in aviation, but it takes up to four minutes for the airport at Chennai, for example, to find out about a flight being grounded in Mumbai, and the ensuing delays and disruptions, as a planned live monitoring system is yet to take off. This, aviation experts feel, leads to avoidable diversions.

It has been a year since Airports Authority of India (AAI) set up the Airport Operations Control Centre ( AOCC) in the city, but the unit - which allows airlines, airport officials, security agencies and other stakeholders to see live feeds about ground and air operations - is not connected to airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. The result is that airlines and airports are not able to anticipate and prepare for flight delays and disruptions.

AAI has its own AOCC that links 10 airports. All of them, except Kolkata, are small ones. The system was established at a cost of 320 crore. A senior official of AAI said airlines have been demanding interlinking of AOCCs.

"Ours is the largest network. But as private airports are not within our ambit, we are not able to link to metro airports," he said.

"Interlinking helps airlines and airports to find out live when a flight is expected to reach or if there is a delay at another airport. Airports now depend on data from radars and messages from airlines to allot bays and other ground facilities. Gaps in information flow can cause delays."

This keeps airports in the dark on what is happening on the ground and in the air at different cities, forcing air crews to make last minute diversions. An official said a networked AOCC will help airlines streamline operations. Depending on airlines' information may not always be useful as there have been times when airlines do not inform about delays at a connecting airport.

"Live data helps in optimal use of parking bays, aerobridges and counters," an airport official said.