Every month, six aircraft are added to the Indian airspace. In 2006-07, 60 million people travelled by air in the country. The aviation sector is indeed growing at a steep rate. Here is the downside: congestion, flight delays and diversions; all leading to enormous fuel wastage.

The average wastage of fuel per flight, operating between Delhi and Mumbai, the two most congested airports in the country, is 30-40 per cent, says Ravi Capoor, the executive director of the Petroleum Conservation Research Association, an energy auditing agency.

Ever since the domestic open-sky policy came into force towards the end of 2003, the stage was set for the entry of private carriers in a big way.

The spurt in growth came in 2005 when three more airlines joined the Indian skies. At present, there are 10 major domestic airlines. In the pipeline are regional airlines. By 2012, the combined fleet of all airlines in the country would have increased by 480. The good thing is India will have a fleet of new-generation, fuel-efficient aircraft, but this advantage will be nullified if infrastructure does not keep pace with growing traffic. Already there is congestion in the air.

Though fog is notorious for causing flight delays in winter, it is not the only culprit. Congestion resulting from inadequate infrastructure and manpower is also running up the aviation fuel bill. In 1997-98, the demand for aviation turbine fuel (ATF) was 2,108 tonnes. This grew by 90 per cent in 2006-07. Demand is now breaching records. As per provisional figures available with the Petroleum Ministry in December 2007, 419 tonnes of ATF was sold, the highest ever in a month.

While no exact data is available on fuel lost due to fog delays, it is estimated to be a sizeable 35-40 per cent, depending on the flight and the distance it covers, says an industry source. The worst hit is the Delhi airport, which witnessed more than 800 fog hours between December 2006 and January 2007. When the runway visibility range drops below 800 metres, the number of flights using a runway is restricted to eight in half an hour. Though the Delhi airport is equipped with cat III B instrument landing system that enables flight operations in poor visibility, aircraft operators prefer not to risk foggy conditions.

Considering the Delhi airport handles 600-650 flights every day, the total emissions and cost to airlines are huge. One hour of hovering costs an airline over Rs 1 lakh. There are over 40 flights that operate about 80 trips between Mumbai and Delhi every day. If all of them have an average circling time of 30 minutes each, about 92,000 kg of fuel will go waste. Over Rs 44 lakh gone down the drain in a day!

In terms of emissions, the 115,000 extra litres of fuel burnt every day between Mumbai and Delhi means 248.2 tonnes of CO2 pumped into the atmosphere, or pollution caused by 161 small cars running for a year. Aviation fuel, which is a form of kerosene, produces about 2.158 kg of CO2 emissions per litre consumed. These are rough estimates. Under actual conditions, fuel consumption depends on a number of factors, including fuel usage during take-off and landing. During take-off, fuel burn is the maximum, almost 8,000 litres an hour. During economic landing mode, fuel burn can be less than 300 litres an hour. Winds and jet streams also affect an aircraft’s fuel efficiency.

When the government claims that airport infrastructure is gearing up to meet the challenge, it tells you only the half truth. No doubt infrastructure is being added at a rapid pace. Greenfield airports, Brownfield airports, capacity addition and modernisation are the buzzwords at the Civil Aviation Ministry. But there are infrastructural problems building more airports cannot address.

One of the long-standing issues has been radar integration, says an official of the International Air Transport Association. In radar-networked areas all radars are interconnected to give details about the position of all aircraft within a territorial zone. But radar integration is not possible because almost 40 per cent of India’s civil airspace has no radar coverage. This leads to delays and underutilization of airspace.

Last year, the government decided to look into the issue, but industry insiders say the plan to integrate radars is a pipedream.

There is another technological glitch. ATCs use the Radar Data Processor System and the Flight Data Processing System to monitor and guide aircraft into airports. Both the systems need to be integrated for safe landings and take-offs. Under an integrated system the data of flights are automatically read by the radar data processor to ascertain the number of flights approaching the airport. Only Delhi and Mumbai have the integrated system. In other airports the ATCs have to constantly feed in flight data and also delete older data manually. This leads to wastage of time.

Dearth of trained ATCs is another problem. Between 2000 and 2005 the government did not recruit a single ATC. An official of the Civil Aviation Ministry, however, said India needed at least 4,000- 5,000 ATCs to ensure smooth operations. At present, there are only 1,500 ATCs. It seems India’s aviation sector has taken to an unsustainable and wasteful course.

Down To Earth Feature Service