Airlines approach Defence Ministry to open military airports

With flight schedules being disrupted due to fog, resulting in chaos at airports, private airlines have approached the Defence Ministry to open military airports around Delhi to the civilian aircrafts. "Under the umbrella of Federation of Indian Airlines we have asked the Defence Ministry to let us utilise defence airports in Agra and Gwalior during disruptions of flights in Delhi due to fog," SpiceJet chairman Siddhanta Sharma said. The logic is to lessen delays due to diversion of flights to other airports, which are far from Delhi, he added. "As such the Agra defence airport is open to chartered aircrafts and we think it can also be opened to civilian airlines during fog season," he said. He said FIA was likely to get a reply from the ministry before its next meeting in January.

Meanwhile, SpiceJet today announced that it had got the CAT II certification from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). "We have trained all pilots on our own except the three who joined us from Jet Airways. With this we are now prepared to meet the challenges of fog disruptions and ensure punctuality and safety to passengers," SpiceJet executive VP (Flight Operations) JS Dhillon said. The low cost carrier is aiming to be Cat III(A) compliant by June 2007. Dhillon said while the carriers were preparing on their own to meet challenges due to fog, airports also needed to be upgraded in order to give minimum discomfort to passengers.

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