The series of arguments started after Tharoor targeted Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia over the insufficient number of trained pilots to land planes on CAT III-B compliant runways at Delhi airport that are equipped for aircraft to land with a minimum visibility of up to 50 metres. This comes as several flights were cancelled or delayed at Delhi airport, making passengers wait for several hours as the national capital grappled with cold weather.
In reply to Tharoor’s post alleging Scindia of incompetence in a series of tweets, the minister replied, “It is for someone who is lost in his esoteric world of thesaurus that data mining of selective press articles from the internet qualifies as 'research'."
In his earlier post on X, Tharoor criticised the Aviation Ministry for a 12-hour flight delay, after which passengers were seen eating meals on the tarmac of IGI airport, which he termed a shocking security breach.
Tharoor highlighted the inability of the Union Aviation Ministry and Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to plan a CAT III-C that would allow landing flights even at zero visibility, even after the UPA government ensured a CAT III-B system in 2008. Tharoor also claimed that they did not ensure that the pilots who flew to Delhi during fog conditions were trained to land on CAT III-B runways.
Scindia responded by calling Tharoor an “arm-chair critic," posting a series of posts, terming them "actual facts."
Shashi Tharoor pointed out that the Delhi Airport had witnessed chaos and said, “In all its wisdom, the Modi government began maintenance work on one of the two CAT III-B runways in September 2023, fully aware that it would not be ready for the winter!”
“Even worse, a crane from some other construction work was blocking operation of CAT III-B on one runway, even after repairs were complete. Delhi Airport flagged this over 10 days ago, on Jan 5, but no action was taken,” the Congress MP added.
In his reply, Scindia took a jibe and clarified, “The crane was being used for the construction of another critical infrastructure project - the Dwarka Expressway.”
Scindia added that the treatment meted out to the passengers in the instant case was unacceptable, and they have acted immediately in the form of a show cause notice to the concerned operators. Scindia also issued SOPs on Monday (January 15) to improve communication and passenger facilitation in an attempt to reduce discomfort for passengers.
In his concluding post, Scindia said, “Under the NDA govt, along with Akasa, five new regional airlines have taken birth under the PM’s UDAN vision. Fleet size has increased from 400 in 2014 to 730 today, and will reach 1,500- 2,000 by 2030. Airports have doubled from 74 in the last 65 years to 149 today. This will reach 220 in the next 3-4 years.”
This came as a reply to Tharoor’s claim that the aviation industry is primarily controlled by two groups, “Once a highly competitive industry with many different airlines and cheap fares, now 90% of the market is controlled by just two groups. Market concentration anywhere and everywhere fosters high prices and poor customer service.”
On Sunday (January 14), over 400 flights were delayed across India, multiple flights were cancelled, and several were diverted because of poor visibility. According to Delhi airport sources, the CAT III compliant runway was not functioning because there was zero visibility and operations started to limp back to normal only after the weather started to clear.
