This winter will bring relief to the flight delays and cancellations because the AAI-run aerodrome will become CAT-IIIB airport from the coming month. The CAT-IIIB will help the aircraft to land even among the heavy fog. The advanced and hi-tech landing equipment and navigation will help in the dense fog.
Jaipur Airport is equipped with ILS (Cat-II), and RVR (runway visual range) of about 300 meters but is not very compatible with heavy fog conditions.
A chief airport official mentioned, “Jaipur Airport will become CAT-IIIB compliant from 5 AM of December 8″.
All the domestic airlines need to work on CAT-III compatible planes. The flying crew should be trained enough to fly in less visibility conditions and operate in the airport facilitated with CAT IIIB system.
In present dates, only Delhi Airport has that system.
Instrumental Landing System (Category-III) is very new navigation benefit which supports the aircraft to land among extreme foggy conditions. The Category-IIIA is a precise tool and landing system which allows the plane to land the runway visual range of 200 meters. Whereas III-B allows the landing with the RVR of shorter than 50 meters.
The official also mentioned that, ” for the Jaipur airport, the RVR is set at 175 metres, which makes it a “restricted” CAT-IIIB operations aerodrome”.
Every single day, Jaipur Airport manages 96 departures and arrivals. The official said, “Moreover, by upgrading the airport to CAT-III level, the traffic bound for Delhi airport can also be diverted to Jaipur during the peak foggy season which, in turn, will lessen the burden at Delhi airport as well”.
In December, 2015, government had announced about the compliance of 13 airports which include Jaipur, Amritsar, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Patna and Lucknow with CAT-III system. This will make possible seamless flight operations even when there are extreme foggy conditions.
