GAGAN system

Shift to GAGAN system to cost airlines over Rs 800 crore

GAGAN, the GPS-aided geo-augmented navigation system that was launched by civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju on August 13, will take a long time before its finds buyers in the civil aviation sector. The current navigation systems are all radar-based.

Officials at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said that all planes that put the new navigation system would have to replace the older one with it — and bear a cost of about R2 crore per system. India has a total of about 400 aircraft — which means an overall replacement cost of R800 crore.

“We are evaluating the new navigation system — we have given our views to the government on the new systems. All these are good initiatives, but execution is still a while away,” said Mittu Chandilya, managing director of Air Asia.

“Right now, the aircraft are not capable of using GAGAN. When it is implemented, we will make the necessary investments to make the planes compliant. The new aircraft that we will receive from 2016 will be ready to use GAGAN,” said a SpiceJet spokesperson. However, private airline companies fear that the government will mandate it and the affair will be a costly one.

Using the current navigation systems, air traffic control centres can operate two planes in the airspace at the same time. GAGAN will allow the ATC to operate 50 planes in the airspace in the same timeframe. It also improves efficiency and increases fuel savings — as planes will have to circle less over the airports — reduces the workload of flight crew and ATC, and allows vertical guidance at runaways. Some other countries that use similar navigation systems are the US, Japan and some European countries. However, the government seems to be at a crossroads. “We can't mandate such a high cost replacement for airlines. If we do so, all fleet will have to be grounded,” said the official. Experts said, for example, if IndiGo has to replace its existing system with GAGAN, it will have to shell out about R200 crore, and the aviation sector is not in its best financial health.

A big benefit GAGAN brings to busy airports like Delhi and Mumbai is that it will reduce the distance between two planes during landing and take-off. Under current guidelines, the distance between two planes should be 18 km. GAGAN can reduce it 360 metres. “This will solve a lot of problems at the congested airports, and the system is much better than the present radar-based navigation system,” said officials.