Kolkata: City airports have begun managing airspace on Varanasi from October 25, integrating the last sector remaining to harmonize the upper airspace in the east and northeast who have kicked more than six years ago in August 2015.
Of the seven continental and one sea airspace In the Kolkata flight information area (FIR), two continental airsports – Guwahati and Varanasi – have not yet been integrated until January this year.
While the airspace of Guwahati at a height exceeds 25,000 feet integrated with Kolkata this January, the integration of the air vanasi utas now starts.
The integration of these two regions has been postponed due to technical and administrative problems.
The source said the labor crisis in Kolkata ATC was one reason from the delay.
Following the integration of the sky, the area controller sitting in Kolkata will manage 250-300 overflights that travel through 1.7 lakh sq km from the airspace of the vanasi which extends from Khajuraho to Lucknow, giving them direct routing or direct flight path to Delhi FIR.
This does not only mean less flight time, but also produces fuel savings and contributes to making the sky a little greener.
Previously, the jurisdiction of the airspace of Kolkata was to style, Ranchi and Patna.
With a direct route, the pilot also does not need to change the frequency.
This means fewer coordination loads in pilots and controllers.
It also allows controllers to increase capacity by packing more flights because the entire sky is under radar coverage.
Controller said the move would also make the sky safer and eliminate the possibility of contradictory flight lines due to coordination problems.
“There is a lot of coordination involved in handing over so many flights to Varanasi ATC which is one of the busiest routes in the country and also receives as many fights as possible from the last,” ATC official said.
Before the addition of vanasi upper airspace, the controller in Kolkata managed 11.9 lakh sq km from the airspace.
With the increasing jurisdiction of kolkata air traffic regions (ATR), the controller here will manage traffic on 15 international routes, 37 crossings and 10 convergent points, making it one of the most challenging ATRs in the country.