VIP movement may hit IGI flights

New Delhi: In what could be a triple whammy for passengers flying in and out of the IGI Airport on Saturday morning, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, PM Manmohan Singh and President Pratibha Patil would be using the airport within a span of less than two hours during the morning which could result in major delays.
The entire schedule in the first half is likely to get disrupted, as has happened several times in the past when operations had to be stopped to facilitate flights of VIPs. At 9.55am, the PM and Sonia would be flying into IGI in a chopper from the Safdarjung airport. Later, Singh is scheduled to fly to Kanpur at 11.15am for the IIT convocation. In the middle of this, President Pratibha Patil is also expected to fly to Mumbai around 10.30am to inaugurate a hospital in that city.
As per security regulations, all operations are stalled for three minutes during which a VIP flight is to operate. While traffic can still be regulated during arrivals, departures tend to upset schedules very often. On May 26 this year, 11 flights were diverted after the runways were closed for almost two hours to facilitate departure of Patil's flight to China and the President of Turkmenistan's flight to Agra. On June 7, seven flights had to be diverted when the PM's flight to Srinagar got delayed.
03/07/10 Times of India

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Categories: Airports Jul 2010, New Jul 2010