‘Exempt us from deploying CAT II/III planes at Bangalore & Kolkata’: Akasa to DGCA; else warns of ‘disruptions’ | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Amid its pilot training troubles, Akasa has sought regulatory exemption from deploying aircraft equipped to take off and land (CAT II/III) in low visibility conditions along with pilots trained to do so at Bengaluru and Kolkata for flights to operate from 9 pm to early morning. The almost 2.5-year-old airline has warned of “significant disruptions” at these airports and causing hardship to passengers.
Following the early onset of fog this unusually warm winter, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had last month made it mandatory for airlines to deploy aircraft with CATII/III landing and low visibility take off (LVTO) systems along with pilots trained on the same on night to morning flights at airports like Delhi, Amritsar, Jaipur, Lucknow, Bengaluru and Kolkata. Akasa, which has over 840 pilots for its current fleet of 26 Boeing 737 MAX planes, has been facing pilot training issues and sources say the required number of trained pilots are not available with them for CAT III landings at their Bangalore base.
The airline is already under scanner when DGCA has red-flagged this in the recent past. The regulator had recently issued Akasa a show cause for alleged training lapses, including wrong minima certification of a simulator on which some pilots were trained to operate in low visibility. So, while the airline has the required number of low visibility operation compliant planes and crew to cover north India operations, doing so in Kolkata and Bengaluru is proving to be challenging this winter.
While Akasa did not comment on this issue, airline sources said: “CAT (II/III) trainings as required by the regulator are typically achieved in a phased manner, as an airline progresses in its operations from inception. Akasa has been working closely with the DGCA and aims to train the requisite number of CAT3 compliant pilots in a timely manner as mandated by the regulator. Akasa has ensured it protects all fog-prone destinations along the northern region of its network.”
“In public interest and keeping in mind the safety and security of passengers, DGCA has correctly extended this mandate nationwide. As there is a variance in topography of southern and northern states, Bengaluru will be impacted differently than Delhi, and this is the area in which Akasa will now work to enhance its capabilities and ensure it flies within regulations while providing a reliable and efficient experience to its customers,” Akasa sources said.
The “traditional” fog window is Dec 10 to Feb 10 but this year while temperatures are yet to dip, low visibility made its debut early Nov itself. The DGCA then preponed its fog window and asked airlines to deploy aircraft II/III-compliant aircraft with pilots trained to land in low visibility at many airports.