India’s civil aviation regulator will inspect the Noida International Airport to ascertain its readiness for the grant of regulatory clearance required to commence commercial flight operations, sources told businessline.
Accordingly, the inspection will include reviewing the airport’s infrastructure readiness and reviewing established procedures before issuing the aerodrome license. NIA is expected to handle 5-6 million passengers in its maiden year of commercial operation, which is expected to start in April.
“We expect the Noida airport to soon start commercial operations once it clears all the regulatory licensing requirements. Generally, it takes 90 days for the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) to process the aerodrome application for licensing and the process is going on,” sources told businessline.
“However, the final date will depend on factors including DGCA and BCAS (Bureau of Civil Aviation Security) approvals.”
Apart from approvals, the airport needs to publish the Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP).
In technical parlance, AIP is a manual for pilots and aircrew that contains thorough details of regulations, procedures, and information regarding navigation and airspace that are required for operating to and from a given airport.
Besides, a period of 70 days is given for its dissemination, only after which airlines are able to book slot timing at the airport and announce their flight schedules, leading to ticket bookings.
BCAS inspection
Furthermore, a BCAS inspection is required for anti-sabotage checks and inspection of the required apparatus for anti-hijacking and bomb squad operations.
“No clear timelines can be given before the inspections and checks are conducted; however, we believe that operations might commence anytime between April and May,” sources said.
The airport has once before missed its completion deadline scheduled at the end of 2024 due to sourcing constraints of materials like structural steel.
In its first phase of development, the airport with one runway and one terminal will have a capacity to handle traffic of 12 million passengers annually. After the completion of the fourth phase, the airport will have the capacity to manage 70 million passengers per year.
Airline major IndiGo is expected to be the first passenger carrier to start services from the airport. The airline had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the NIA.
On the international front, many foreign carriers have also shown interest in starting operations at the airport once it gets operational.