The pitiable state of aviation in India

By Anil Dharkar

The monsoon is the worst time to fly. Added to the normal hazards of flying, you now have to worry about weather related hazards. Like lightning bolts ready to strike. (The other evening one plane was struck twice. And survived.) Or air-pockets as deep as Vijay Mallya’s. Or sudden fluctuations in atmospheric pressure which can send aircraft into dizzying falls…

But none of this is as bad as the normal hazards of flying in India. Here’s why: only eight of the country’s 50 operational airports have the mandatory licenses issued by the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation).

Those without a license include the Anna International airport in Chennai, the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International airport in Kolkata, Sardar Vallabhai Patel International airport in Ahmedabad. What a wonderful roll of honour! What a grand sounding roster of names! What an absolute and utter disgrace!

Does the license mean anything at all? Not having it, according to aviation experts, means that that particular airport does not conform to Indian Aircraft Rules, 1937 or the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s safety standards. Who is to blame? Both the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and DGCA.

The former because it operates a majority of these airports; the latter because it issues the licenses and enforces the rules. But things aren’t as bad as they seem: most of the airports have applied for the renewal of their licenses, a process which has to be repeated every two years.

The AAI often applies late and the DGCA generally takes its own time to issue licenses, which means that many of these 42 airports are without licenses only because the paperwork has not been completed on time. Apparently this is because both AAI and DGCA are short-staffed.

The fact that a license is issued for only two years, as opposed to say five or 10, tells its own story. Presumably the reason is to ensure that the authorities can keep a periodic check on airports to ensure that safety procedures and equipment are in place and that they are updated quickly as and when required.

But if AAI and DGCA are so short of manpower that they cannot even process applications for renewal, where would they have the manpower for the much more onerous and time-consuming task of actual physical inspections and verifications at each and every airport? And even if they do, do these inspections mean anything?

After all, the Mangalore airport did have a valid license when the Air India Express plane crashed there on May 22.

After the Mangalore crash, we learnt that its airstrip is not long enough; that though jet aircraft can — and do — land there, there is very little margin for error. Then we learnt that Mangalore wasn’t the worst: several airports in the country have shorter or more hazardous runways.

The question for civil aviation minister Praful Patel is this: Do we stay with this uncomfortable state of affairs? Or do we take the measures required to upgrade these airstrips?

Common sense — that word again — tells me that we should separate the renovation and upgradation of airports, which is essentially about passenger amenities and comfort from what I would call airport essentials, which are the runway itself and the control tower and its equipment which guide aircraft movement, landings and take-offs.

The essentials cannot wait; passenger comfort can. Recently there have occurred some bizarre incidents like a departing aircraft in Mumbai airport almost going into the path of an arriving plane because there was no indicator to tell the pilot that he should turn one way, not the other. This is the equivalent of not providing a traffic light at the busiest city junction.

The easiest fall-guy in aviation is the pilot, and pilot error is often given as the reason for an accident. But a pilot needs infrastructure and that is what is surely lacking in our country.