Civilian planes to have flexible access to restricted airspace

The Defence Ministry has agreed to allow civilian aircraft to fly in "restricted" airspace when it is not in use -- a move which, once implemented, would help cut flying time besides reducing costs for the carriers.
Domestic carrier SpiceJet has already operated a test flight as part of the validation exercise in this regard.
As of now, approximately 60 per cent of Indian airspace is open for Indian civil aviation to fly in, while the rest is restricted airspace for the defence establishment to operate.
SpiceJet recently conducted a trial run on the Delhi- Dehradun route, flying over Hindon and Sarsawa air force stations, with the flight saving 100-kg of jet fuel and three minutes of flying time. The return flight had higher savings both in terms of fuel consumption as well as flying time.

"SpiceJet welcomes the flexible use of airspace initiative and congratulates AAI and the Defence Ministry for their efforts to make this a reality. We are glad to partner with them to pilot this initiative," said SpiceJet chief operating officer, Sanjiv Kapoor.
Once institutionalised, it would be a 'win-win' situation for all as it would result in lower fuel consumption and emissions -- which is good for the environment -- lower fuel bills for the airlines, and shorter flying times for the passengers, he added.

Fuel bills account for nearly 40 per cent of an airline's operating costs.
Most of the navigational routes for civilian aircraft are not straight due to the 40 per cent "restricted" airspace and the civilian aircraft have to circumnavigate the restricted areas thereby losing fuel and time while adding to carbon emissions, an airline official said.

To utilise this restricted air space, both AAI and defence aviation experts have devised a flexible use of airspace (FUA) manual, which means that under three conditions civilian aircraft/operators can use defence's restricted air space.
The concept is based on three levels of airspace management -- permanent routes which can be used for flight planning; non-permanent routes but which can be used for flight planning subject to availability; and non-permanent routes which cannot be used for flight planning but can be made available by the ATC after defence clearance.
According to sources, AAI has constituted a separate directorate under the Air Navigation Services Provider (ANSP) department which would look at the optimisation of the whole airspace of India in coordination with the Ministry of Defence.

"AAI in association with the Defence Ministry and SpiceJet also organised a three-day workshop in this regard, during which two routes -- Delhi-Dehradun-Delhi and Kolkata-Jaipur- Kolkata -- were was selected for the validation of the FUA manual," sources said.