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The seminar on “Synergising ATC-Airports-Airlines
to meet Contemporary Challenges in Civil Aviation” was held at New Delhi
on November 1 & 2, 2004. On the day one, there were three technical
sessions. The first session’s subject was “Future of Civil Aviation in
India – Modernisation, Collaboration and Privatisation”. The session was
chaired by Shri H S Khola, which was conducted and regulated in a manner as
a person of his stature is expected to, being the former head of the
regulatory body in civil aviation, i.e. DGCA. We had three speakers in the
first session. The first one was Capt. G R Gopinath, MD, Air Deccan, whose
topic was “Economics of low cost travel in India”. Capt Gopinath, a former
officer of the Indian army, ventured in the Indian aviation sector and
eventually launched the Air Deccan, the low fare - no frills scheduled
airlines, on 25th Aug 2003. He elaborated the capacity handling constraints
of aerodromes, particularly in respect of Delhi and Mumbai. Because a low
cost airline banks upon the factor of optimum uses of the aircraft and that
can be achieved only if you have a quick turn around time at the Airports.
The second speaker was Prof (Dr) Sushil
from IIT Delhi. The topic was Flexible Management Systems and Collaborative
Approach. The presentation was an eye opener for the aviation fraternity
because the management concepts which were known to be confined to finance
and administrative fields, are applicable to aviation field, in particular
to Air Traffic Management. He dwelt upon the low cost no frill airlines
focusing on the central issue of quality and he also emphasised on the point
of decentralisation stating that decentralisation is not the answer for
development in 3A (ATC – Airports - Airlines). Because you need to have
fourth A i.e. the Government or regulator (DGCA) as a partner.
The third speaker was, Mr Peter Bysouth,
Astt Director (user charges), IATA, Asia Pacific, Singapore. His topic was
IATA vision 2005 – 2010. The presentation had an element of surprise with
visualising draft press release for the year 2010, wherein it was stated
that the Govt of India has achieved all the proposed reforms in the aviation
sector like lowering of Airport user charges and linking theses charges to
the quality facilities provided to the airline operators. And also the most
important of all India bags the IATA - Eagle award for 2010.
The second technical session “Civil
Aviation Infrastructure and its effect on growth of Developing Economies”
was chaired by Shri Robey Lal, ex Member (Ops) of the Airports Authority of
India, in a manner which in ATC terminology means in a “Safe, Orderly and
Expeditious” manner. Shri Robey Lal dwelt on the word “Synergise” - the
theme word of this seminar. The first presentation was made by Dr R K Pant
from IIT Mumbai who is an associate professor in IIT Mumbai in department of
Aerospace Engineering. He informed the august gathering about the various
computer aided models available to study airport handling capacity, delays,
detection of conflicts and resolution of such conflicts and foremost of all,
the human factors and automation issues. Emphasising on the point that
humans cannot work like a machine in a program sequence and the human in
question is none other than the Air Traffic Controller.
The second speaker was Mr Sanjeev Bahl,
GM (F&A), Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd and his topic was “The Economics of
Helicopter Operations in India”. He dwelt upon the issues of large financial
inputs required to sustain, if one has to venture into and continue in the
Helicopter operations in India. He also highlighted the issue of hurdles in
wet leasing of Helicopters for increasing capacity. He also emphasised on
the need to have improvised Air Traffic Services procedures particularly in
respect of Helicopter operations to and from Juhu Airport. A question was
asked to Shri Bahl, why does not the PHHL develop its own heliports and
operate. The answer is still awaited.
The third and the last session on day one
on the subject “Second Generation Reforms in Civil Aviation” was chaired by
Shri T Kesharwani, ex Senior consultant of Planning Commission of India and
ex Member (Finance) of International Airports Authority of India.
The next speaker was Dr Vinaysheel Gautam
from IIT Delhi. He is a Professor in department of Management Studies. He is
also the founder director of IIM Calicut. His subject was “Second Generation
reforms in civil aviation”. He dwelt upon the state of infrastructure
development in civil aviation in India. He gave examples of the new airports
coming up in private sector, i.e. in Bangalore and Hyderabad, wherein new
managerial policies are being experimented. He also commented on the Naresh
Chandra committee report part - I, wherein the report identifies that the
civil aviation policy is influenced by the external affairs policy of our
country.
The last speaker of the day - I was Mr
Akhil Sharma of SITA Inc. based at UK. Shri Sharma is a CNS/ATM expert and
he is managing the SITA partnership with Air Services Australia, exploring
the deployment of the regional ADSB services throughout the Asia Pacific
region.
Second day of the seminar had three
sessions. The first session, “Civil Aviation Infrastructure and its effect
on growth of Developing Economies” was chaired by Shri T Kesharwani.
The first speaker was Mr Boon Swan Foo,
Chairman CHAMPS, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Civil Aviation
Authority of Singapore. It is a well known fact that Changi has been
consistently voted as the best managed airport in the world. He spoke on the
subject, “Airports as National Economic drivers”. He gave a scintillating
presentation on the Changi Airport, Singapore and its effort to take up
joint ventures in India in respect of Delhi and Mumbai Airports. He said the
Air Traffic Controllers are life blood of an Airport. He appreciated the
efforts of Delhi and Mumbai Air Traffic Controllers and ATC officers in
general in handling the traffic with given constraints. He said airports are
economic entities in their own rights. They generate employment at airport
and associated industries but he also said of the biggest challenge on how
to balance the public service role and to be a viable business in its own
right.
We had a guest speaker as Shri Vijay
Mallya, MP also the Chairman of UB group and Kingfisher airlines, who gave
insight into the infrastructure development required at Indian Airports but
gave a special emphasis on improvement in Air Traffic Control, Air Space
restructuring etc. He shared his personal experiences as a pilot for
experiencing delays on ground and told the gathering that the Air Traffic
Controllers cannot do anything about it.
Third speaker was Mr Ashish Kaul, VP,
Essel Group. He is an expert in corporate brand development & promotion,
marketing communication, PR and advertising activities in telecom, satellite
infrastructure etc. He spoke on the issue of common traveller’s experience.
He emphasised that airports are the mirror of the country because it is the
first impression and a lasting one. Airports are the brand ambassadors of
the country. He also said infrastructure development is not just building
runways, taxiways, terminals, but it is a state of mind. The attitude of the
service providers should be like treating the customers - not like a
customer but like a guest.
Second session - “Second Generation
Reforms in Civil Aviation” of day 2 was chaired by Shri Robey Lal.
The first speaker was Dr V Sridhar, a
Professor with Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, specialising in
information management area who has held many teaching assignments in India
and abroad. His topic was Yield Management for competitive advantages in the
airline industry wherein he emphasised on the Yield Management
techniques to calculate the best pricing policy for air travel. Its
applicability in Indian context was also explored.
The second speaker was Dr Arnab Majumdar
from Imperial College of London. Dr Majumdar is a post doctoral research
associate in the Centre for Transport Studies, department of civil and
environmental engineering. His topic was development in air space capacity
and safety research. He has spent almost a decade in researching on what the
Air Traffic Controllers do, and why do they commit mistakes. If you increase
the air space capacity it leads to increase in enroute controller’s
workload. He also gave up information on various simulated mathematical
models to determine the airspace capacity and to determine the controllers’
workload. He concluded by saying that due to rapid growth in aviation, we
need to increase the airspace handling capacity and calculate the workload
for Air Traffic Controllers and to understand why incidents happen keeping
the human factors in mind.
The third and last technical session
“Galvanising Civil Aviation – A Cultural Shift” was chaired by Shri H S
Khola. First speakers were Dr Abha Chaturvedi and Dr Anil Chaturvedi of MDI,
Gurgaon. Dr Anil Chaturvedi is a qualified aeronautical engineer, a product
from Pune University. He was a faculty member in many of the top of the list
management schools in India. Dr (Mrs) Abha Chaturvedi, after completing her
masters and doctorate from the Lucknow University, she was associated with
administrative college of India at Hyderabad on various research
assignments. Their topic was “Challenges of Cultural Transition”. They
emphasised that a cultural change needs rethinking on learning innovation
and relational capabilities. Changes must be seen as a organisational
necessity and not an agenda of an individual. The logic of change must be
clearly stated and widely shared.
The last speaker of the seminar was Mr
Soon Boon Hai, Astt Director, IATA, Asia Pacific, Singapore on “The Cultural
Shift – An ATCO’s point of view”. Before his present assignment, he was an
Air Traffic Controller by profession, working for Civil Aviation Authority
of Singapore in various capacities including the Chief Air Traffic Control
Officer. He is deeply involved in almost whatever is happening in aviation
field in the Asia Pacific region. The controllers in the region look up to
him as a role model. He gave a presentation on what a controller needs –
runways, taxiways, air routes, better air space utilisation. He dwelt on
parallel independent approaches in context of the sighting of the runways as
required by ICAO standards. He urged the Air Traffic Control Officers to be
part of the solution at all stages of planning and decision making. The
controller has to think, manage instead of controlling traffic.
The Chief Guest for the Valedictory
session, Mr Praful Patel, Hon’ble minister of Civil Aviation had the opinion
that Changes are taking place world over in Civil Aviation industry and
India is lagging behind. The efforts by the Air Traffic Controllers’ Guild
in organising a platform, to deliberate on the topic of “Synergising ATC-Airports-Airlines”
were praised by the minister. He told it very categorically that even though
India matches China, population wise, the number of civil aircraft in China
is five times more than that of India. Of late, he said, efforts are being
made to develop the airport infrastructure, but it needs to be done at a
rapid pace to cope up with the need. Airport planners must have a
vision for future rather than meeting day to day requirement. All agencies
concerned including ministry and AAI must endeavour to make world class
airports as the contribution towards the national economy. Industries,
especially tourism, will be directly benefited. When he talked of tourism,
he said, a tourist doesn’t mean foreign tourists but domestic tourists also.
Air Traffic Control plays a very vital role in the Civil Aviation industry.
For time to come low cost airlines are likely to capture middle class people
of the society – consequential effect will be increase in aircraft movements
and crowding the Indian skies. Even though technical support adds to the
controllers’ decision making, there role cannot be undermined. Proper
training of the Air Traffic Controllers and exposure to new technologies is
the need of the hour to meet the challenges in the sky. Airports like Delhi,
Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai needs to be upgraded to world class standard
through private participation. ATC to be upgraded and airlines to be
encouraged to meet the future challenges of Civil Aviation, more so a
concerted and coherent effort is needed with the active support of
Government and AAI.
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