Jyotiraditya Scindia: ‘War rooms’ at airports to solve passenger problems

Amid fog-related flight disruptions, the Civil Aviation Ministry has asked Delhi, Mumbai and four other metro airports to report incidents three times a day and these airports as well as airlines have been asked to report to passengers regarding the issues. Will set up ‘war room’ for solution.

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday said it will also be ensured that adequate CISF manpower is available round the clock at the airports.

Over the past few days, there were incidents of a passenger attacking an IndiGo pilot at the Delhi airport and passengers of an IndiGo plane sitting on the tarmac at the Mumbai airport amid long flight delays due to fog.

Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport
Passenger beats up IndiGo pilot at Delhi airport over flight delay; Arrested
In this backdrop, aviation regulator DGCA on Monday issued a set of standard operating procedures (SOPs), following which Scindia said all stakeholders are working round the clock to minimize fog-related disruptions.

In a post on Twitter on Tuesday, Scindia said the ministry has sought “incident reporting three times daily for all six metro airports”.

Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata are metro airports.

‘War rooms’ will be set up by airports and airline operators at the six metro airports to immediately resolve any issues regarding passenger inconvenience.

Regarding Delhi airport, the minister said runway RWY 29L has been made CAT III operational on Tuesday.

RWY 10/28 will be operated as CAT III at the airport after re-carpeting work.

At present, three out of four runways of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in the national capital are operational.

IGIA, the country’s largest airport, has four runways – RW 09/27, RW 11R/29L, RW 10/28 and RW 11L/29R. Among them, three runways, including CAT III-compliant RW 11L/29R, are operational.

Scindia also said that the implementation of DGCA’s instructions and SOPs will be monitored and reported regularly.