How justified is air travellers’ ire when fog disrupts flights? 

There is need for air travellers to also appreciate the operational constraints when an external factor beyond the airlines’ control has caused prolonged delays to a large number of flights

Flight disruptions caused by low visibility at Delhi airport due to fog on several days this winter has prompted irate passengers to accuse airlines of incompetence, insensitivity, lack of professionalism, etc. This, as per some of the affected passengers, is because fog is an annual feature and airlines ought to be better prepared to ensure that flights are not disrupted; they are not inconvenienced.

Are airlines really deserving of such harsh criticism?

It is unfortunate that the management of all Indian carriers, for reasons best known to them, prefer to maintain a stoic silence rather than share the operational constraints with air travellers. So much so that they did not even feel like putting in public domain that non-availability of an ILS CAT IIIB-equipped runway – responsibility of the airport operator – during the foggy days further compounded the disruptions.

While the passengers’ angst is understandable to an extent, particularly when they have been held hostage on an aircraft for hours or have been locked up on an aerobridge in Mumbai or when their flight has been delayed by over ten hours and subsequently diverted, there is need for air travellers to also appreciate the operational constraints when an external factor beyond the airlines’ control has caused prolonged delays to a large number of flights.

Passengers inconvenience can be broadly classified into two parts: avoidable and unavoidable. The airlines can, and should, be held responsible for the avoidable inconvenience that could have been contained by taking proactive measures. For the unavoidable inconvenience, passengers need to be not only reasonable but also appreciative of operational constraints under which airlines have to schedule and reschedule flights when fog disrupts numerous flights for 3-4 hours at a stretch.

There is, of course, a section of the travelling public who take an extreme posturing: Such an attitude can be summed up as “why must I care when my concern is only my flight and I have paid for it”. In this category can be placed the rogue passenger who ran down the aisle of an Indigo flight and hit the co-pilot.

Before I focus on some of the operational issues that invariably crop up when large-scale disruptions take place due to fog, let me put a poser: Is there an incentive for an airline to delay, divert or cancel a flight, if it can avoid such a situation? None, whatsoever! So why would an airline cause avoidable inconvenience to those patronising an airline?

A major accusation made against the airline staff by passengers and a section of the media, and also to an extent endorsed by the Union ministry of civil aviation, was about lack of communication regarding the flights.

How realistic is this accusation?

The communication from the airline can be divided into two parts: One, prior to a passenger leaving his/her place for the airport. If the information of delays/cancellation is available with an airline it ought to be communicated to avoid inconvenience. The question is: Did airlines augment the mechanism that deals with this communication aspect keeping in view the scenario when multiple flights are either delayed or cancelled suddenly? If not, they are indeed guilty of causing avoidable inconvenience.

The second part relates to passengers who have arrived at the airport in the absence of any communication or they were to board a flight which was set to depart but had to be cancelled because fog had suddenly set in. It is in such situations that most complaints about lack of communication emerge. Their requirement of information is simple – “When will my flight take off?” To a passenger the question may be simple but it has a complex answer, and needs proper understanding of logistics.

The best way to understand operational constraints is to imagine oneself as an airline staffer. Can the staffer, or for that matter anyone, provide the answer to this question? They are in no position to forecast as to when will the fog disappear or visibility will improve for flights to start taking off? Further, even when visibility is seen to be improving, can the airline staffer indicate the departure time? Very unlikely! This is because numerous flights of different airlines have been disrupted and all can’t be scheduled for simultaneous departures. Airlines have to reschedule flights keeping various parameters in view.

While a passenger’s concern is restricted to just his or her flight, the airline has to see through the schedule – aircraft availability since arrivals have also been impacted, situation at next destination, flight and duty time limitations of pilots and cabin crew, etc. Further, while an airline management will be privy to its own requirements, they would be oblivious of schedules being simultaneously worked out by other airlines. In such a situation a generic announcement that “poor visibility has hampered flights and we will commence operations as soon as situation improves” repeated again and again, can only please some with others getting agitated as nothing new is being added to the announcement. Credible announcement meeting expectations of irate passengers is indeed a difficult proposition in such a scenario.

CAT IIIB Training

Since fog is an annual phenomenon why can’t airlines have adequate CAT IIIB trained pilots? This is another question, though logical, that is often asked. Here again an explanation should have been forthcoming from the airlines with twin objectives – blunting the criticism and to enlighten the air travellers. The fact that Indian aviation is in growth mode is known to all. The fact that in 2023, airlines inducted over 130 new aircraft requiring about 1,800 new pilots may also be known to some?

What would be a priority for an airline in an environment when pilots’ availability is a constraint? Train pilots in adequate numbers to fly the new aircraft year round to meet the growing demand or pull pilots out of normal schedule by cancelling some flights to make them undergo CAT IIIB training? It’s a difficult choice where an airline will get damned for whichever option it exercises.

Then there are passengers in different parts of the country, who accuse the airline of citing fog as a reason when neither at their point of flight origin or destination fog has been a factor. They simply overlook the fact that the aircraft which was to operate their flight from point B to C had perhaps originally started its operation from fog affected Delhi, which is India’s busiest airport. How many passengers are willing to understand this logistical problem?

In the past few days, a section of the media has highlighted the absence of any backlash for airlines from passengers affected by thousands of cancelled flights due to inclement weather in the USA. The reason was simple: The passengers in America appreciated the operational constraints whereas in India a section of passengers are seemingly concerned with just one question: When will my flight take-off and operational constraints don’t matter to them. Is this really the right attitude?

If airlines have to create an environment of better understanding of operational constraints they need to communicate. Silence may be good in some situations but it certainly isn’t when their professionalism and competence to operate flights in fog-inflicted conditions is being questioned.

Jitender Bhargava is a former executive director of Air India and author of the book, The Descent of Air India. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.