Delhi airport officials prepare fog management plan

New Delhi, Oct 29 (UNI) Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd (DIAL) has prepared a fog management plan that throws operations out of gear in winters.

Next week, DIAL will hold a meeting of airline executives to discuss the plan.

''There will be better information and more comforts for passengers this year,'' said chief operating officer Andrew Harrison. ''We'll also start deploying trafffic marshal to manage vehicular trafffic at terminal buildings.'' Fog cover reduces the visibility, leading to flight delays and subsequently chaotic scenes. But private airlines are not too keen to train their pilots in the instrument landing system (ILS) that helps flights land and take-off even in thick fog.

Other than Air India and Indian, only Kingfisher at present is capable of flying in heavy fog conditions. Even then, only some of its pilots are trained to handle the ILS.

With roughly 180 flights operating out of Delhi per day, only about 55 can operate on very foggy days. Last year, for instance, about 152 flight movements were recorded on days when low visibility procedures were implemented at IGI.

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