ABC 774 Melbourne - Jon Faine on Fog at Aus Airports

[HIALS]

I think we should review the old nugget that 'the number of foggy days means we can't justify Cat III equipment'.

In two weeks, I have been delayed a total of 17 hours because of fog at SYD and MEL that would not have been a problem with Cat III approaches.

The costs to the industry are enormous:

1. Extra fuel consumption holding
2. Extra fuel consumption diverting
3. Passenger accomodation when connections are compromised
4. Food for passengers that get stranded enroute
5. Network disruption (aircraft and crew in the wrong places)
6. Consequential delays trying to get the network back into order again
7. Maintenance costs associated with extra flight time (holding and diverting)
8. Extra customer service staff costs as huge and extended workloads are handled
9. etc
10. etc

Not to mention the bad publicity that our industry is exposed to when network chaos ensues.

I agree with other posters that the lack of 'first world facilities' is symptomatic of a lamentable lack of investment in our air transport system. The problem is now decades old.

Every jet transport aircraft in Australia is capable of Cat IIIB - but our ground equipment is four times as incompetent.

So - let's stop saying we can't justify the upgrade and get on with it.