The Hindu : National : New IGI airport runway opens today

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New IGI airport runway opens today

Staff Reporter

First flight to land on the new runway will be an AI aircraft at 6:15 a.m.

All departures will be from the new runway

NEW DELHI: The third runway at Indira Gandhi International Airport here, one of the longest in Asia at 4,430 metres, will become operational from 6 a.m. on Thursday.

The first flight to land on the new runway will be an Air India aircraft scheduled to touch down at 6:15 a.m.

These decisions were taken at a meeting of the Ministry of Civil Aviation with all the Delhi airport stakeholders. The meeting was chaired by Joint Secretary K.N. Srivastava.

It was decided that for optimal utilisation of facilities and in the larger interest of the passengers, all arrivals as far as possible would be handled at the primary runway (10-28) and all departures will be from the new runway (11-29).

The airlines would have to take into consideration the fact that the turnaround time of the aircraft landing or taking off from the new runway, which will be an hour instead of the present 45 minutes, to take care of the additional taxiing time involved.

The airlines are also required to file their winter schedule of flights by next month for approval by the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation.

The commissioning of the third runway is expected to address the problem of air congestion at IGI Airport. As of now, the flight movement at the airport is 35-40 per hour, which will go up to 60 with the third runway being operational.

The Delhi International Airport Limited, which is developing the IGI Airport, has been asked to take adequate measures to prevent any incidents of bird-hit. It has also been instructed to ensure that the CAT-IIIB instrument landing system facilities are commissioned on the runway by November, well before the advent of the fog season.

The Airports Authority of India would ensure that the surface movement radar facilities for the new runway are also commissioned by then.

The new runway has a width of 60 metres and has been built as per Code F standards. It would be capable of handling next generation aircraft like the Airbus A380 and the Antonov An-225.

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