Re: Long flight delays in New Delhi amidst intense fog | Pilot assaulted | Passengers dine on runway Allow me to shed what little light I can. Some of this may inadvertently be a repetition of other posts, if so do forgive me. Quote:
Originally Posted by fhdowntheline It is also important that Government does not allow the sector to be a duopoly, and must encourage and facilitate newer players. |
This the Govt has consistently failed at. In the 1990s and 2000s it was if I dare say, if the Moderators permit me, due to open book corruption. In more recent years the corruption at the top has disappeared and replaced by incompetence at the ministerial level with Civil Aviation being the dumping ground for all sorts of left over politicos. Also, everything is dumped on DGCA which is designed to be an air safety regulator not a business regulator. Quote:
Also there is the question of too much too soon. Airlines are planning to add one airplane per week practically. Are they capable of handling this capacity growth particularly in human aspects ? Because that is where they are all severely lacking.
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This is driven by demand and supply. Thanks to this growth we can now buy a ticket at the nth hour and fly. This is a massive change from the PSU days. Growth is good and still short of where it needs to be. Flying is now being done by a socio-economic layer that never thought of flying as an alternative. This is a very important sign of progress. To their credit Indigo & Air India have planned their growth and respective supply chains. But we should still expect shortages of experienced pilots and engineers. This is a growth driven phenomena experienced even in USA, the mother of aviation. Not good but true. Quote:
Do we even have so much "airspace" available for traffic keeping aside the restricted airspace areas?
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We have enough airspace. We need to make it mandatory that our heavy routes (BOM-DEL-BLR-HYD-MDS) be flown by wide bodies to reduce the landing-takeoff congestion at DEL, BOM, BLR. We need more narrow body and regional aircraft flights into Tier 3 and Tier 4 towns. An air connection is a stimulus for business to a Tier 4 town much the same way a road connection brings the world to a village. Quote:
Is the government using any kind of modeling/forecasting of traffic growth based on these factors?
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Yes they are. Very much so. That is how the Udaan scheme came about. Quote:
Originally Posted by nstark13 I don't speak in the favor of the airlines or the accused here but everyone who's saying violence is not the answer, try sitting in a closed space for more than 8 hours and you'll realise what anguish and helplessness feels like. The occupants only had one point of contact, the crew, and even they gave half s-assed answers with no real solution. Violence was not the answer, it was a reaction and a very good one. |
Thank you for saying it. In my past I have employed pilots and cabin crew on a mid-sized business and on a scale of 1 to 10 on lack of empathy that pilot ranked 9.9 on 10. In times of stress we default to our level of training. That he defaulted down to this level reflects both the training he received and the attitude of his senior management that was in his mental muscle memory. If he were a pilot in my employ I would be concerned about his ability to handle a tough situation on the flight deck. Quote:
One simple solution could have been that if the people were waiting for around 3 hours then let them return to the terminal even if it meant doing the security check again. Indigo should've realised by then that the wait times were going to be longer. Do you really need fricking 8 hours in bone chilling winter to realise people need food and water to survive. What a joke!
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Here the problem is not with the airline but with our hide bound and IMHO not so competent BCAS {Bureau of Civil Aviation Security}. In my time BCAS made DGCA seem like a professional well oiled machine, that is how poor they are. They set the rules on security and do not allow for de-boarding back into the terminal because they don't have the space. BCAS, DGCA, MoCA, the Airport owners work in silos, they don't talk enough with each other and that is why this issue of a security sanitized area for de-boarded pax doesn't exist at Indian airports even though this point has been tabled a dozen times. So as has been written in this thread earlier by some the airline wants to keep the pax on board and hold the aircraft's place in the take-off queue. Where some airlines have faltered is in not providing training or empowering to their cabin and flight crew of what to do with the 180 head of cattle they are carrying if they are stuck for a few hours.
In the PSU days Indian Airlines carried food & water for every pax and some extra. So, if stuck they could at least serve one full meal plus something. Indian Airlines was not counting every kilo of weight on board.* Today the likes of Indigo carry limited snack and water compared to the 180 pax all as a part of the low cost carrier disguise. So even if they want to {which also they were confused about} the cabin crew do not have snacks for everyone. I doubt they have enough water to serve even 200ml of water in their small paper cups to all 180 over the course of the 8 hours. Nor did their logistics have the sense to send a truck to load up more - but that may have been a problem with the aircraft queued up. Mr. Rahul Bhatia who has been conspicuous by his absence may wish to dwell on this. * 5 less 2-litre bottles = 10 kilos. 180 seats x 750 grammes of less seat cushion = 135 kilos.....and so on. That is how the thought goes.
Last edited by GTO : 26th January 2024 at 12:29.
Reason: PM coming up
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