India will play the crucial role of a traffic cop in the skies managing east-west civilian air traffic in case war breaks out in Iraq. This was the key area of focus as countries in the Asia-Pacific region got together in Bangkok under the aegis of the International Civil Aviation Organisation to discuss contingencies this week.Known as the gateway to the East, the maximum number of air routes on the east-west axis fly across India. In case war breaks out, ICAO would provide alternate routes for civilian traffic between the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Most of these alternate routes would run north and south of the war zone, skipping the Gulf.As it was discussed at the Bangkok meeting, these routes would converge over Indian airspace. It would then become the job of Indian air traffic controllers to realign these aircraft and their workload is expected to go up by 60 to 70 per cent.Most of the realignment would be done by those manning Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai flight information regions. ICAO has asked India to ensure that all flights entering its airspace from the West be put back on original routes before they leave.India too has asked ICAO to apply pressure on Muscat, Aden, Jeddah, Dubai and Amman to minimise restrictions on their airspace in case of war. During the Gulf War, India was left managing large queues as these countries put several restrictions.
