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The Chennai airport has registered a 14 per cent increase in passenger movement (both international and domestic) during the nine-month period of the current fiscal ending December 2018 when compared with the same period previous year.
The increase was mainly due to more connections to smaller airports under the Udaan scheme, which has made flying cheaper, said airport officials. The airport handled 1.70 crore passengers in the first nine months of this fiscal as against 1.48 crore in the same period last year.
Aircraft movement registered a 20 per cent increase to 1.35 lakhs (1.13 lakhs), said G Chandramouli, Director, Chennai airport. “Since July, we have been consistently handling over 500 aircraft movements daily even as Indigo crossed 100 departures,” he told BusinesLine .
“The increase was also due to capacity expansion that was taken up at a cost of ₹160 crore on straightening of Bravo taxiway, extension of Romeo taxiway, adding of three rapid exit taxiways and three taxiways,” he said.
On cargo handling, Chandramouli said there was a marginal increase to 3.15 lakh tonnes (3.14 lakh tonnes).
Development
At the current growth rate, the Chennai airport will reach saturation in three years. However, the current development plans taken up at around ₹3,000 crore will ensure that the airport sustains its growth momentum. Chandramouli added that concreting has started, and the works are going on in full swing.
“Terminal construction (going on between domestic and international terminals) should be completed by 2020,” he said.
A contract to build a multi-level car park under Build, Own and Operate has been awarded to a joint venture between Olympia and L&T. Site preparation is currently underway and full-fledged work will start in 20 days, he added.
Secondary runway
A safety study has been commissioned on teh feasibility of handling bigger aircrafts like Boeing 747 and 777 in the secondary runway.
The Instrument Landing System could not be installed in the secondary runway due to the configuration, and the Very High Frequency Omni-Directional Range — a type of short-range radio navigation system for aircraft navigation — is being used instead, he said.
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