Chennai runway work to hit airlines, passengers

Chennai: Work on the runways, beginning in April, at the Meenambakkam airport is likely to throw normal air traffic out of gear as the main runway (07/25), the only one in operation now, will be partly closed between 10 am and 5 pm every day.
When the entire stretch of the runaway cannot be used, wide-bodied aircraft will face a ‘penalty’ with displaced threshold and revised declared distances, said an Airport Authority of India source.‘Penalty’, in aviation terms, means an aircraft will not be able to take off or land with full capacity.
This possibility has made various airlines jittery. Reeling under severe loss, most airlines were planning to make up by making optimum use of their fleet.
The part closure of the runway is to facilitiate the construction of linkways and taxiways that will connect the main runway with the secondary runway (12/30). Construction activity will initially be on the main runway’s Zone-1, where it intersects with the secondary runway.
Once that work is completed, AAI proposes to start building two more linkways, when the entire runway will be closed and the secondary runway will be opened again partly. Later, expansion of the secondary runway over Adyar river will begin.
16/03/09 Mamta Todi/ExpressBuzz

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Airports Mar 2009