British Airways, Air France cancel flights

So carriers like Scandinavian Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Austrian Airlines, Japan Airlines, Royal Jordanian Airlines, Aeroflot, Bangla Biman, are operating on schedule.

However, Singapore Airlines, for instance, has rescheduled its flights out of Mumbai and Chennai to an earlier time so that they land at their destination much before the midnight hour.

While BA has cancelled its flight to Indian destinations, it’s operating its flights from London further east during the crucial hours, to Hong Kong and Bangkok. The scheduled departure from London is on 31st evening, arriving the next day, New Year, at both destinations. Similarly, it is also operating its flight to favourite destinations, Johannesburg, New York and Los Angleles.

According to the BA spokesperson, the airline has spent over a 100 million pound to ensure that its aircraft and systems are certified to be on track for business as usual for the millennium. The spokesperson denies the airline is not operating on the eve of Year 2000 to India, despite the fact that computers in travel agencies show the flight has been cancelled. The official version is that a decision is yet to be made.

BA’s action report on the Y2K bug is, however, revealing. Entitled Action 2000, it says, "…safety is always our first priority and we will only fly to a destination if we are confident of the safety of the systems involved."

Air France, however, has cancelled all its flights to the eastern sector including Delhi, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Beijing. Its services to the US remain on schedule though it has cancelled its Concorde flights to the same sector. It has also cancelled its flights to destinations to South America, like Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires from Paris. An airline reservation officer explained, "Look, it has nothing to do with air traffic services here, it’s only because there has been no demand for seats for that day. Neither are we operating on full strength worldwide that day."

KLM-NorthWest has also cancelled its flight to India before the millennium midnight and to sectors like Hong Kong, Mexico, and to some US destinations like Atlanta and Washington.

Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Ministry says it has left no chip unturned towards achieving Y2K compliance. Says an official from the Airports Authority of India (AAI), "We have gone through all the required tests to make sure that the commercial facilities (terminal facilities like security, cargo, X-ray machines etc) and navigational aides (radar and communication systems) are fully Y2K compliant. Even our national carriers have been fitted with all the necessary equipment to fight the bug. The result is – we are fully Y2K compliant."

Apart from these checks, international bodies like IATA, IACO (international air traffic control body) have been conducting thorough assessments and tests in airports and ATCs worldwide for tracking and validating data and also monitoring progress.

Says Ashok Jain, chairman of the Airline Operating Committee in Delhi, a world body of airline companies: "An aircraft flies through several airspaces before it reaches its destination. Therefore, it is important for the airline to be confident that all countries en route are Y2K compliant. If there is the slightest doubt, the route has been summarily cancelled."

According to Jain, IACO will put into operation its carefully worked out contingency plans on millennium eve like greater space between aircraft in the sky, more time between takeoff and landing, all of which will cause delays. "Is it not better that there are lesser flights on that day and, therefore, lesser delays? Imagine if every airline operated as usual," he reasons.