The Hindu Business Line : Coimbatore airport to resume night operations from today

WITH two more airlines planning to introduce flights from Coimbatore over the next few days, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) administering the Peelamedu civil airport has decided to resume night operations from Saturday.

The removal of the restricted flight operation hitherto in force for more than a-year-and-half is made possible due to the completion of the phase one runway expansion-cum-strengthening work.

"We are in a position now to accept flights even after sunset and the watch-hours at the airport is being extended from tomorrow to facilitate the night landing of the flights," said Mr Vijay Kumar, Airport Director, AAI - Coimbatore.

The two immediate beneficiaries are Air Deccan and the new aviation company - Paramount Airways - whose flights, to be introduced over the next few days, will be operating through Coimbatore late evening either for landing or for departure.

While the Air Deccan has scheduled to operate two new flights on Coimbatore-Bangalore and Coimbatore-Chennai sectors , Paramount is expected to start its Coimbatore-Delhi-Kochi-Delhi-Coimbatore flight (an Embraer 170) possibly from Sunday which will see the return flight landing here at 8 p.m.

The AAI Coimbatore resorted to restricted flight operation at Peelamedu airport to facilitate the civil and engineering works for revamping the runway and modernisation. During the renovation work, the flight operation was restricted between 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. with the exception of the Indian Airline's Sharjah flight, which for three days in a week, was allowed to land and depart in the early hours.

The phase-I airport revamp implemented at a cost of Rs 20 crore included extending the runway length (from 7,500 ft to 8,500 ft) besides profiling the structure of the runway as per the International Civil Aviation Organisation's standards involving the `Camber correction'.

The strengthening of the runway will now allow the airport to handle higher capacity aircraft up to a maximum weight of 204 tonnes (the weight bearing capacity of the runway prior to the revamp was 74 tonnes).

With more airlines on the wings to have Coimbatore connectivity, the worry-lines are visible on the airport officials here on the likely space constraints the increased passenger and baggage traffic would cast on the Peelamedu airport in the coming days. The airport will also need additional personnel to facilitate the extended operation hours.

Mr Vijay Kumar hoped that once the airport operating hours are extended, the present problem of bunching or crowding of landing and departures would go as the airlines would prefer to reschedule suitably their timings either to evening or early morning slots.

In order to accommodate more flights, the AAI Coimbatore has sought to extend the apron and the taxiway to create three more parking bays at a cost of Rs 4 crore.

The tender for the project is to open on Monday, airport officials said.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Coimbatore airport to resume night operations from today

Jetstar Asia to begin Bangalore-Singapore flights

GTECH plea for direct flights to Chennai, Bangalore

Feedback Ventures to advise AAI

Italian cos to be `active' in airport modernisation

`Hard for ports to generate resources with meagre surplus'

Airports, ports to get risk management module

`AAI employees strike will be total'

Eastern Railway freight, passenger revenues up

Cancer kids ride metro

Truck rentals move up 4-5 pc on trunk routes

Indian Roads Congress to develop standards for 4-lane highways