Fly to Pondy in 10 mins

Chennai/Puducherry: With a new terminal building expected to be ready by August this year, the Puducherry airport is all set for a makeover. While there are no scheduled flights to this Union Territory(UT), airport authorities plan to facilitate airline operators to fly ATR type aircraft.
Presently un-scheduled flights, helicopter operations and flying clubs operate this airport.
“The Rs30 crore new terminal building that can accommodate 150 passengers at a time will be opened by August this year,” said Airports Authority of India (AAI) southern region executive director D. Devaraj. Noting that no airline has filed for any operations from Puducherry airport, he said the AAI has made the airport ready for ATR operations.
“The present runway length is 1,503 metres and it is enough to operate ATR type aircraft,” he said, adding that there are no constraints for airlines to start operations right away as the old terminal building is available for passenger movement.
However, Mr Devaraj noted that bigger aircrafts like Airbus 320 and Boeing 737 can’t be operated from Puducherry airport unless the runway length is extended to a minimum of 2,200 metres. “As per our master plan, we have asked for 436 acres of land to increase the runway length to cater to operations of bigger aircraft,” he added.
28/02/12 S. Sujatha & S. Prasad/Deccan Chronicle

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

Categories: airports Feb 2012, New Feb 2012