Airspace congestion hits force’s training plan

Bangalore: Air Marshal Dhiraj Kukreja, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief at the IAF’s Training Command headquarter at Bangalore, was all smiles as he gave away Commendation Cards of Chief of Air Staff and AOC-in-C of the Training Command to officers, airmen and civilians here today on the occasion of the 79th anniversary of the IAF. But behind his smile lurks a worried man.
Kukreja, the overall boss of the flying lessons imparted to trainee pilots, is worried about the congestion in the airspace resulting from the unprecedented rise in the number of passenger flights in the recent days.
Coming up of the new Bangalore International Airport at Yelahanka has put restrictions on the transport planes and helicopters operating from the Air Force Station in the area. “There is going to be a second runway and they are also talking about a third runway. This will further restrict scope of training of IAF’s rookie pilots,” Kukreja said.
He spoke about how the increase in volume of the civilian air traffic using the international airport at Shamshadabad near Hyderabad was posing problems for the IAF training programme carried out from three neighbouring centres, namely Begumpet, Hakimpet and the Air Force Academy (AFA) at Dundigal.
09/10/11 Shubhadeep Choudhury/The Tribune

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

Categories: airports Oct 2011