Initiatives taken by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) along with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to improve India’s airport and air navigation infrastructure will drive greater efficiencies within the Indian commercial aviation sector.
These initiatives will benefit Indian airlines with lower operating costs due to reduced airport congestion both in the air and on the ground, eventually reducing the waiting time for travelling public at airports.
The notable change for passengers will be due to the government’s ‘Digi Yatra’ initiative, which began in 2018, to deliver contactless, seamless and paperless handling of passengers at Indian airports from the terminal’s entry gate to the boarding point.
Six airports - Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, Varanasi and Vijayawada, are already trialling biometric boarding systems using facial recognition technology. Digi Yatra will be rolled out in a phased manner at other Indian airports on the successful completion of these trials.
Accelerating change
The Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya M Scindia recently sent letters to the Chief Ministers of 14 states asking for their assistance in expediting matters related to strengthening the aviation infrastructure in their respective states. He highlighted pending requirements for land allocation to improve airport infrastructure, pending amounts from various state governments as part of their share towards Viability Gap Funding (VGF) for the Regional Air Connectivity Fund Trust (RACFT), consent for 100% VGF support for International UDAN operations.
AAI will pump in investments worth approximately INR 25,000 crore in four-five years to modernise airport infrastructure, but support from the state government is vital to clear land acquisition hurdles. According to AAI’s July Air Traffic Report, 1,14,629 commercial aviation aircraft movements were handled by India’s operational airports with 10.53 million passengers and 259.17 thousand tonne of freight.
Airport upgrade
The Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata, which AAI operates, is receiving a significant infrastructure upgrade with an ATC tower and technical block being built at an estimated cost of INR.458 crore. The new ATC tower will be more than 50 meters tall and feature modern automation & VCS equipment, allowing more Controller Work Positions (CWP) to meet the upper & lower area harmonisation requirement in the Kolkata Area Control Centre (ACC). A new Advanced Surface Movement Guidance & Control System (ASMGCS) will provide a bird’s eye view of the entire operational runway. The existing control tower building is between the airport’s old domestic and international terminal buildings and did not have the required space for additional personnel or modern equipment and sensors integration. With greater passenger traffic at the airport due to UDAN flights, the apron capacity at Kolkata Airport is being increased with 23 parking bays for Category C aircraft, three parking bays for Category E aircraft. Rapid Exit Taxi (RET) tracks will also be constructed to enable aircraft to move away from the main runways after landing, allowing more aircraft movements. The overall cost of these upgrades is INR 264.99 crore and is likely to be completed by November 2021.
Guwahati’s Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport is being upgraded with an integrated terminal building along with additional infrastructure being built at INR 1,232 crore. The work is expected to be completed this year and will increase the airport’s annual capacity to 12 MPPA (million passengers per annum) with a Peak Hour Handling Capacity (PHHC) of 4,500 passengers (4,100 domestic + 400 international). The airport’s new terminal building has been designed to achieve a four-star Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA).
The Chennai International Airport is also being upgraded to international standards with a new integrated terminal building that will increase its annual capacity to 22.54 MPPA with a PHHC of 5,000 passengers (4,100 domestic + 900 international). The INR 1,342 crore project is slated for completion in August 2022, and the airport’s existing T2 domestic terminal and T3 international terminal will be demolished and rebuilt with two levels. Chennai International Airport is targeting a four-star GRIHA rating. The airport’s airside infrastructure (airport operating area) is also being upgraded with three RET’s for the main runway 07/25 and two for secondary runway 12/30. In addition, the airport’s parallel taxi track, existing apron and taxiway are being strengthened to accommodate Category E aircraft, reducing the time occupied by these aircraft on the runways.
Modernising air navigation infrastructure
The AAI is also the air navigation services provider in Indian airspace and is modernising the nation’s air navigation infrastructure to enable more efficient use of airspace and provide shorter flight routes that will lower fuel consumption for airlines. In March, AAI announced the integration of the upper airspace above 25,000 feet over the country’s North Eastern Region with the Kolkata Communications, Navigation, Surveillance & Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) facility, and it will be controlled from Kolkata ATC Centre as compared to the Guwahati ATC Centre earlier. It was done as part of the AAI initiative towards Upper Airspace Harmonisation (UAH) in the four Flight Information Regions (FIR), namely Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai.
Integrating four FIR’s will help establish a single block upper airspace at operating altitudes around 26,000 feet. Aircraft flying in this airspace can now be provided with economical flight levels (operating altitude) & direct routing due to a single ATC covering multiple airspace sectors. This will allow airlines to save fuel, thereby reducing their operating costs by accessing the most efficient route to reach their destination. The time savings could also allow them to deploy their aircraft to more destinations in a day. The UAH initiatives are being done as part of the AAI’s Indian Air Traffic Management Strategic Plan of seamless Air Traffic Services in Indian FIR in line with the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) Global Air Navigation Plan & Regional Air Navigation Plan.