Are Airlines Equipped To Deal With The Fog Situation?

DGCA says there are enough trained pilots, but pilots say it’s more complicated

- Ashwini Phadnis

With North India being enveloped by a thick fog cover for the first time this year leading to diversions and cancellations of flights, the obvious question that arises is how can this be stopped or at least reduced during the peak winter months.

During fog, the airports experience what are called CAT III B conditions when visibility at an airport range from 50 meters to 174 meters. The conditions are called CAT III A when visibility is between 175 meters and 299 meters. India has around 3,600 pilots including 2,000 Pilots in Command and another 1,600 copilots who are trained to operate a flight under CAT III B conditions.

Sources in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation told BusinessLine that the number of CAT III B pilots domestically are “sufficient” for managing operations in India. They, however, declined to give the break-up of how many CAT III trained pilots each airline has in India.

Number of pilots