Nimish
Member
Joined: 16 Dec 2006
Posts: 9757
Location: Bangalore, India
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 Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 2:48 pm Post subject: BIAL - foggy situation? |
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Article from DNA: http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/main-article_a-clear-view-in-fog_1322979
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You know the real problem with the Bengaluru International Airport being located 35 km outside the city? The dense winter fog results in delayed flights. This happened at HAL airport, but was never was quite as bad.
Take last Tuesday morning. Passengers who arrived early to board flights around 6 am where checked in, frisked, security-stamped and sent down the lines past entry gates into the waiting aircrafts, despite a clearly visible blanket of fog on the runaway. The fog at BIAL is special. It is called 'radiation fog', something that is formed when the ground cools rapidly resulting in condensation. It takes a light wind, a clear sky and humidity to make this happen. Devanahalli is idea for these conditions. BIAL knows this and it warns passengers that "Fog is anticipated from 15 November to 15 February, between 03:00 IST to 08:30 IST."
What BIAL does not tell you is this: you are going to be herded into the aircraft regardless of the fact that the aircraft is not going to take off because of the fog. You may have to sit for hours, folded like an origami passenger in the narrow seats of low cost airlines, perhaps ready to be struck by deep vein thrombosis, until the fog lifts.
BIAL knows that the flights cannot take off and yet you get sent into the aircraft. This is because BIAL does not have the space to hold passengers in its building. So, rather than crowd the building, put pressure on the coffee shops and make passengers suffer toilets that just cannot be cleaned fast enough, it sends the passengers into the aircrafts. Now, you can sit strapped into your seat and ask for tiny cups of reluctantly served water (the sandwiches on low cost airlines not only being hugely expensive, but terrible in taste as well).
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Rather misleading article IMO - firstly the situation at HAL was just as bad - I stay next to it and can vouch for the series of fog laden days we have even right now - though of course there's no traffic at HAL that's disrupted.
Here's a response from member Devesh - made for an interesting read:
From: http://www.bangaloreaviation.com/2009/12/arun-katiyars-foggy-view-of-bangalore.html
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Mr. Katiyar is blissfully unaware that it is the airlines that decide when to board their aircraft, not the airport operator.
Loading passengers in to an aircraft requires ground support equipment like ground power units which cost money to rent and run. Something no airline is willing to waste in these tough economic times.
At Bangalore, while the onset of fog is fairly predictable, the duration of the fog is anything but. Once the sun shines the fog can burn away very quickly and visibility will reach minimum operating conditions before an airline can load up its aircraft. Also once minimum operating conditions are reached, the floodgates of both arriving and departing aircraft open, and airlines are keen to be ahead in the taxi queue so that they can commence their early morning flights, often the first of the day, as soon as possible, to minimise nationwide systemic operational impact. In order to get in to the departure queue, a flight has to declare to the ATC it is fully loaded and ready to push back before it gets a slot in the taxi queue.
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Isn't it the same procedure in DEL as well - where pax typically are herded into the a/c if there's a chance of the fog clearing, so that the a/c can be officially in the queue? So I wonder what makes DNA think that it's the airport operator that wants to clear the terminal?
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We miss you Nalini! |
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stealthpilot
Member
Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Posts: 2325
Location: BLR, DXB
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| Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 6:00 pm Post subject: Re: BIAL - foggy situation? |
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| Nimish wrote: | | Isn't it the same procedure in DEL as well - where pax typically are herded into the a/c if there's a chance of the fog clearing, so that the a/c can be officially in the queue? So I wonder what makes DNA think that it's the airport operator that wants to clear the terminal? |
What makes DNA think it’s the airports call? You aren’t expecting them to fish for facts are you 
Well you know 'aviation journalists', they talk to a friend of a friend then his aunt and see what she thinks... then they get inputs from official people who 'do not want to be named' 
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