Asian airports pushed to upgrade facilities

Asian airports pushed to upgrade facilities

HONG KONG (AFP): The Indian air disaster has highlighted the
pressure on Asian airports to upgrade facilities to meet a boom
which is crowding the region's skies, experts said yesterday.

The mid-air collision between a Saudi and Kazakh jet on
Tuesday killed 350 people and sent a shudder through the
burgeoning airline industry.

By the year 2000, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to
account for 41 percent of the world's scheduled air traffic, or
200 million passengers, the Geneva-based Air Transport Action
Group (ATAG) said.

The figure will balloon to 51 percent or 400 million
passengers by 2010, it estimates.

"Super Jumbos," capable of carrying more than 500 passengers,
are expected to make their debut in five years, compounding the
growing congestion in Asia.

ATAG assistant director Thomas Windmuller said Asian airports
were already experiencing "considerable problems" and needed
"massive infrastructural improvements" to tackle future traffic.

Spending on 16 ongoing development programs exceeds US$50
billion, the ATAG estimates but "despite the massive level of
airport construction work, there is a grave danger that it will
not be sufficient," Windmuller said.

He warned that half the airports in the region would be unable
to cope with demand during peak hours. Other experts said planes
flying the region often lacked new technology.

Reports said neither the Saudia Airlines Boeing 747 nor the
Kazakh Ilyushin-76 cargo plane which collided near New Delhi had
a sophisticated traffic convergence avoidance system.

The Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) alerts
the pilot to approaching or nearby planes within 64 kilometers,
giving up to 40 seconds advance warning before impact.

The system is mandatory in the United States for planes with
more than 30 seats.

The Manila-based Oriental Airlines Association said TCAS was
commonly used in the region.

"All our (17) member airlines have their aircraft fitted with
the TCAS," official Richard Stirland said. "This system is
effective.

An Indian expert said the main radar at New Delhi airport
could track only distances of outgoing jets and not their
altitude.

Former air traffic controller O.L. Ojha said: "They are still
using obsolete teleprinters and telexes. With printer-speed being
low, there has to have been a time lag."

India last year set aside almost $90 million to upgrade
facilities at the New Delhi and Bombay airports but the equipment
has yet to be installed. Delhi has common runways for approaching
flights and those taking off, which experts say could be a safety
problem.

W.N. Deshmukh, chairman of the government-sponsored Safety
Commission for Aviation, added: "Safety standards in India, I
believe, are the worst in the world. Runways are poorly lit and
there is no regular update on modern aviation equipment."

A Japanese transport ministry official in Tokyo said air
traffic control headquarters in the country had 15 bureaus
monitoring different altitudes, indicating that standards were on
a par with the best airports.

Barry Grindrod, publisher of the Hong Kong-based Orient
Aviation magazine, said "safety standards in the region are far
higher than anywhere else in the world..

"At the end of the day, it still comes down to the human
being," he said despite improvements in cockpits and air control
towers even in new airports equipped to meet the travel boom.

Hong Kong is building $20 billion airport which will
eventually serve 87 million passengers -- a far cry from the
current 28 million passengers using Kai Tak, the existing
airport.