New runway at IGI by Aug 21

New Delhi: The new runway will be ready soon as the ministry is expected to finalise August 21 as the date for proving flights and commercial operations to start a week later.
According to sources, proving flights, that would operate without any crew or passengers, would land on the new runway hopefully on August 21. Civil Aviation minister Praful Patel may also be present at the ceremony to receive the first few flights that will operate on the new runway. Sources said that the first plane to land will probably be an Air India flight, to be followed by a flight each of Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines and Indigo. The four flights will land within an hour.
Caliberation work on navigational aids is taking place on the runway at present. With the three runways in use together, the flight handling capacity of the airport will go up from the present 35 flights an hour to about 60 flights per hour.
The Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd (DIAL) has acquired special drilling equipment from Europe with which it will be testing the strength of main runway, said sources.
08/08/08 Times of India

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Categories: Airports Aug 2008