In its re-entry to the Puducherry air map after a gap of around three years, SpiceJet’s least worry is about lack of patrons for its Hyderabad-Puducherry-Hyderabad service. Even as the airliner has seen near-capacity passenger volumes on most days, its concerns are to do with something different — the services to Puducherry have been confronted with a problem of low visibility for landing at the airport here on several days since flight operations resumed in August.
Owing to diminished visibility, the low-cost flight operator was forced to cancel its service on September 1 and on several other days had to delay take off of its 78-seater Bombardier, SEJ 1004, from the Hyderabad Airport due to adverse weather conditions at Puducherry Airport.
As per Visual Flight Rules, the airport here should have a visibility of around 5,000 m for the pilot to land the aircraft without any safety threat. On September 1, the visibility was as low as 1500 m and the scheduled take off from Hyderabad Airport at 10 a.m had to be cancelled, said a source in the airport.
The passengers who had booked tickets from here to Hyderabad were taken by the airline managers to Chennai for providing alternate flights. A few of them got their money refunded and cancelled the trips, said a source in the airport.
On several days, the take off from Hyderabad had to be cancelled due to low visibility, an airline staff told The Hindu .
“We are worried about the operations in the next two months when monsoon sets in. The weather condition will be extreme in the coming days,” the staff said. It will be better to shift to Instrument Landing System (ILS) from VFR, said an airport official.
And the problem, it is feared, could turn worse in the winter months ahead.
The Puducherry Airport had proposed to the Airport Authority of India to set up ILS which would help flight operations during inclement weather. The ILS, according to an airport official, is a ground-based system that provides guidance to an aircraft in approaching and landing on a runway by a combination of radio signals and high intensity lights.
It guides the pilots on a specific glide path approach, helping aircraft descend to lower altitudes before making visual contact with the runway during adverse conditions, the official added.
Good volume
Apart from the glitch in the weather, the private player was extremely satisfied with the traffic volume in the Puducherry-Hyderabad sector.
“On most of the days, we are having 100% capacity. The patronage for the sector is showing increase after people here came to know about the connectivity flight available from Hyderabad to other destinations,” an airline staff said.
