New air routes save time and fuel: CAA

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Abbas Ali
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New air routes save time and fuel: CAA

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KARACHI: Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has introduced more short routes for the airlines operating on domestic routes that is not only helping the airlines to reduce their fuel cost but also increase the life of the engines, aircraft and other equipment.

It was announced by the Director Operations CAA Nusratallah Khan while addressing a press conference at CAA Officers Club here on Thursday. By introducing new routes Karachi-Islamabad-Karachi flight time has been reduced by an average of 8 minutes per flight thus saving substantial amount of fuel that comprises 70 per cent of the budget of any airline.

Between March 14 and April 10, PIA has saved Rs3.464 million, AirBlue Rs1.379 million and Aero Asia Rs0.116 million due to the fuel saving route, Nustratullah informed. The altered routes incorporate some air spaces banned for civil aviation due to the flights of Pakistan Air Force (PAF), he said. However, air traffic control officers (ATCOs) of the CAA have been coordinating with the PAF authorities and redirecting the civil flights over this space if it is vacant, he added.

During the said period, total 630 flights have been operated over this route and out of this, 222 flights enjoyed the direct flight with the help of CAA and PAF ATCOs, he mentioned. The total saving in flight time by the airlines is 29 hours and 35 minutes.

The advantage of provision of direct route should not be looked into the precept of fuel saving only as the other factors added advantages and savings, he said. These are, additional fast track ground check time for maintenance, the usage life of aircraft is enhanced, passenger reach their destination early and aircrew fatigue factor is decreased which will in long run help to improve efficiency.

Replying a question regarding the hold over for around 15-30 minutes of the aircraft in case of two aircraft gather at Peshawar airport at a time before landing, he said that the CAA is upgrading the system there. He admitted that this additional flying time is heavily burdening the airlines.

At Karachi airport, time separation between the two flights has been increased to 30 minutes. Replying a question in this regard, he said that CAA has deliberately increased this time just to minimise the congestion at lounges and lack of staff of Airport Security Force.

There is a big availability of avobridge for the proceeding of passengers to aircraft at Karachi airport and CAA can operate multiple aircraft but the CAA has forced the airlines to separate their flights by 30 minutes for the management problems at lounges, he said.

The volume of transit flights over Pakistan has crossed the mark of 300 flights a day. Previously, these figures were 160-180 flights in 24 hours, he said. The ATCOs of CAA are working very hardly and it is looking that these flights will reach the new mark of 450, he said.

Replying to a question regarding the shortages of ATCOs due to the transfer of influential persons on administration posts, he said that the CAA management has increased the allowances of the ATCOs substantially and now they are coming back to their job. Moreover, the CAA has recruited the fresh ones to bridge the gap. However, he admitted that still there is a shortage of around 10 per cent in the ATCOs required manpower.

Source: The News
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Abbas Ali
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Post by Abbas Ali »

CAA fuel saving drive bears fruits

ISLAMABAD, April 15:
Airline fuel saving campaign initiated by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Karachi-Islamabad sector through improved airspace management resulted in over Rs4.94 million savings in a month for three carriers.

“The results of the fuel saving campaign have been very promising and hold the potential of substantial savings for the airlines,” an official said while sharing the statistics of the campaign with Dawn on Saturday.

In addition to saving the fuel, the total flight time during this period was cut by 29 hours and 35 minutes. One of the newly emerging private airlines made most of this campaign as the benefits its obtained from the drive if quantified in terms of percentage were as high as 51.7 per cent.

Although, in terms of the total amount saved by an airline, the national flag carrier was way ahead of it because PIA operated maximum number of flights with wide bodied aircraft.

How did the campaign work? The airlines were offered direct routing instead of the normal ATS route. The difference between the direct and normal route to and from Islamabad is approximately 68NM. The jets travel at 8 NM/minute and flying time saving on direct route in 8 minutes on a Karachi-Islamabad flight.

Additional benefits of the campaign that cannot be translated in financial terms are fast track ground check time for maintenance, early arrival at destination, enhanced aircraft usage life and decrease in air crew fatigue.

Explaining the concept of the fuel saving campaign, the official said, with fuel prices touching the $70 mark, jet fuel prices have correspondingly touched an all time high. Airlines and operators alike are facing the brunt of this effect with eroding profit margins and escalating profit costs.

Source: DAWN
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