Mumbai: Air India is unlikely to face major delays due to fog this winter in its operations from Delhi as its pilots are fully-trained to land under the CAT III B instrument landing system, the airline's chairman said. The system enables pilots to land with just a 50-metres visibility instead of the earlier CAT III A, which required at least 75-metres visibility.

"Our pilots operating Boeing 747-400,Airbus 310 and Airbus 320 aircraft are trained to land under CAT III B," Air India Chairman V Thulasidas told reporters here. "This will eliminate delays due to fog," Thulasidas said, adding, when there is zero visibility, however, the pilots, will not be able to operate. Delhi does sometimes have a zero visibility in foggy conditions in winter.

Thulasidas said Air India does operate a few Boeing 777 aircraft and their pilots are, however, not yet trained to use the CAT III B system. He also said Air India operates a few international flights from Amritsar, Kolkata and Dhaka, which do not have the CAT III B system. But most of the air-carrier's international flights from Delhi are operated by Boeing 747-400s and Airbus 310s and domestic flights by Airbus 320 and pilots of these aircraft are fully-trained in the use of CAT III B, he said.

Source : PTI