Tharoor, Scindia spar over airport chaos
New Delhi: Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia and Congress member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday engaged in a war of words on social media after the Congress leader blamed the BJP-led government in the Centre for the chaos at airports causing inconvenience to passengers. The Congress leader termed the flight delays due to fog a result of the "neglect and incompetence" of the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Hitting back, Mr. Scindia called him an "armchair critic".
In a series of six tweets on X, Mr. Tharoor said chaos at airports is just one of the results of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government’s “chronic mismanagement,” as he spelt out problems at Delhi airport.
Mr Scindia shot back six tweets for a point-by-point rebuttal to the issues raised by Mr Tharoor. The minister said several airlines had to shut down during the UPA regime, while the aviation sector is flourishing under the Modi government.
The minister went on to say that the treatment meted out to the passengers in the instant case was unacceptable and the government acted immediately in the form of a show-cause notice to the concerned operators. Further, SOPs for better communication with passengers were also issued. Implementation is being monitored three times daily.
Mr Tharoor’s allegations came after film actors Richa Chhadha, Ranvir Shorey and Radhika Apte, along with several others, expressed anguish over the airlines and airports for mismanagement. The criticism forced the government to call an emergency meeting on Tuesday night.
Tagging news items in a series of tweets on X, Mr Tharoor wrote, “Delhi airport has been in chaos recently. The young professional wanted to go home for Makar Sankranti. The Army officer was excited to visit his ancestral village for Lohri. The anxious son trying to get home to take care of an unwell parent. Thousands of peoples’ lives and schedules have been disrupted by a regular, predictable, foggy winter day. It’s a Modi govt-made disaster, a result of the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s neglect and incompetence.”
He further said that in 2008, Delhi IGI airport got a brand-new CAT III-B-compliant runway at a cost of Rs 1,000 crores. CAT III-B is a type of instrument landing system, that allows pilots to land even when there is fog or low visibility of 50 metres. He added that, in total, Delhi has four runways, of which two are CAT III-B compliant.
“In all its wisdom, the Modi government began maintenance work on one of the two CAT III-B runways in September last year, fully aware that it would not be ready for the winter! Even worse, a crane from some other construction work was blocking the operation of CAT III-B on one runway, even after repairs were complete. Delhi Airport flagged this over 10 days ago, on January 5, but no action was taken,” Mr Tharoor said.
“In addition to runways, pilots must be trained to land with CAT III-B. The Ministry of Civil Aviation and the DGCA failed to ensure that airlines have sufficiently trained pilots. Further, it did not even ensure that pilots planning to fly to Delhi during fog conditions were CAT III-B trained. Therefore, multiple flights were diverted to cities like Jaipur and Ahmedabad,” the Congress MP said.
He added that the Ministry of civil aviation claimed that at times the visibility was below 50 meter, and so even CAT III-B would not have been enough. “However, there is an even higher category of instrument landing called CAT III-C, which can land at zero visibility. All the way back in 2008, the UPA government could ensure a CAT III-B runway. 16 years have passed since then, with 10 years under the present government. Still, they have yet to even plan a single CAT III-C runway. Across the world, major international airports have multiple CAT III-C runways, but India does not even have one, despite its capital city's woeful fog & smog issues in winter. Why not?” he wrote.
To make matters worse, Mr Tharoor said, the authorities were completely unable to manage the situation or keep passengers comfortable and updated. This is why, in a shocking security breach, after a 12-hour delay, passengers were eating meals on the tarmac of IGI airport.
“After the comedy of errors from the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the DGCA has also been unable to enforce basic passenger rights. Depending on the length of a flight delay, airlines are required to provide food and drink and free accommodations or pay compensation. These passenger rights were put in place by the Civil Aviation Requirements, Section 3, issued in 2010 under the UPA (government). However, airlines have openly flouted these norms. For years, airlines have violated rules -- passengers with tickets denied boarding, compensation not provided after delays, etc. DGCA ‘hauls them up’ for publicity, but either takes no action or imposes fines of token amounts,” Mr Tharoor wrote.
“Of course, in the background of all of this is the sorry state of India’s aviation sector. Once a highly competitive industry with many different airlines and cheap fares, now 90 per cent of the market is controlled by just two groups. Market concentration anywhere and everywhere fosters high prices and poor customer service. Chaos at airports is just one of the results of the Modi government’s chronic mismanagement. Indian Railways has also been struggling as the government reduces the number of sleeper and general coaches and increases AC coaches, despite the poor economic situation in India. The result of this is thousands of passengers overflowing into reserved AC compartments. But that's another story, for another day!” Mr Tharoor accused.
Responding to Mr Tharoor, Mr Scindia said, “It is for someone who is lost in his esoteric world of thesaurus that data mining of selective press articles from the internet qualifies as “research”. Here are some actual facts for armchair critic Mr Tharoor and the Cong IT cell that might help tackle their lack of depth in understanding of technical sectors like civil aviation.”
The minister went on to explain that runway maintenance work is a critical safety element for aviation operations and any compromise with runway conditions directly jeopardises passenger safety. As a result, the maintenance was taken as a top priority to be completed by December 15, before the onset of the fog season. However, due to pollution incidents and the enforcement of GRAP-IV in Delhi, the recarpeting got delayed, resulting in a delay of one month in its commissioning. The revamped runway is getting operational this week. He explained the crane was being used for the construction of another critical infrastructure project -- the Dwarka Expressway. However, in view of its impact on the runway, it has now been decided that the crane operation shall be allowed only on non-fog days. Thus, runway 11R/29L is operational as CAT III as of yesterday.
On the issue of pilots' training, the minister said that Mr Tharoor’s claim “is incorrect and baseless, as usual!”
He said that, as compared to only 2,416 CAT II/CAT III trained pilots in 2014, today the country has 6,191 CAT II/CAT III trained pilots, which is a jump of 2.5 times in the last 9 years. Further, in preparation for the fog season of 2023-24, due to the efforts of the government, the number of CAT II/CAT III trained pilots has grown by 16 per cent in the last three months alone, from 5332 to 6191. Also, the DGCA mandates airlines to deploy CAT III-B-compliant aircraft only with qualified crew during the winter season. Any violations are strictly dealt with by the DGCA. For instance, show-cause notices were issued to Spicejet and Air India.
“It would be prudent to know about the three dependent factors for CAT III landings, viz, runway capability, aircraft capability, and pilot accreditation. Thus, CAT III operations are decided by the highest common factor among the three variables. The two CAT III runways at Delhi Airport are equipped for aircraft to land with minimum visibility of up to 50 meters. However, the majority of the aircraft fleet in India, viz, Airbus 320 (75 m) and Boeing 737 Max (175 m) have visibility minima greater than the runway threshold. Thus, even if the runway is capable and sufficiently trained CAT III pilots are made available, these aircraft are not designed for zero-visibility operations. Further to give you a perspective, JFK (New York ) airport in the USA has 4 runways, but the airport only has 1 runway capable of CAT III landing, which also with a restricted minimum up to 182 m (600 feet) -- 3.5 times of India’s 50 m! Go figure it out yourself -- enlightened, Mr Tharoor!,” wrote Mr Scindia.
“Since your “research” team missed out on the action taken, may please refer to: The CARs implemented during the UPA rule in 2010 were, as expected, inadequate for enforcing passenger rights and had to be amended multiple times by the DGCA to incorporate provisions for safeguarding passenger rights! Further, the DGCA keeps a strict watch on passengers' complaints regarding mistreatment and penalises operators if found guilty. For instance, since 2022, airlines have been imposed with fines for not providing passenger amenities as per the DGCA guidelines."
"Airlines that shut down or were brought to failure during the UPA rule: Kingfisher, Jet Airways, Air India. Under the NDA govt, along with Akasa, 5 new regional airlines have taken birth under the PM’s UDAN vision. Fleet size has increased from 400 in 2014 to 730 today and will reach 1,500 - 2,000 by 2030. Airports have doubled, from 74 in the last 65 years to 149 today. This will reach 220 in the next 3-4 years. Hope you are better informed now, Mr ShashiTharoor!” the minister said.