NEW DELHI: Airports Authority of India's (AAI) attempt to equip Amritsar and Lucknow airports to handle plane diversions during winter, when Delhi is out of bounds, has ended up making things worse for passengers.
The shoddy upgrade has downgraded the ability of these airports to take in flights during fog—like they could till last year—forcing Delhi diversions to go much farther.
Till last year, Amritsar and Lucknow used to have category-II (Cat-II) instrument landing system (ILS), which allowed planes to land in visibility as low as 150m. AAI then started work to upgrade these airports to category III (ILS) where aircraft can touch down in even 50m visibility.
This upgradation required, among other things, to remove runway lights and reinstall them for Cat-III lighting. But since AAI missed several deadlines to complete that work, the missing lights now mean the two airports are not even Cat-II. In fact, now Amritsar and Lucknow don't have any ILS.
13/12/15 Saurabh Sinha/The Economic Times
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The shoddy upgrade has downgraded the ability of these airports to take in flights during fog—like they could till last year—forcing Delhi diversions to go much farther.
Till last year, Amritsar and Lucknow used to have category-II (Cat-II) instrument landing system (ILS), which allowed planes to land in visibility as low as 150m. AAI then started work to upgrade these airports to category III (ILS) where aircraft can touch down in even 50m visibility.
This upgradation required, among other things, to remove runway lights and reinstall them for Cat-III lighting. But since AAI missed several deadlines to complete that work, the missing lights now mean the two airports are not even Cat-II. In fact, now Amritsar and Lucknow don't have any ILS.
13/12/15 Saurabh Sinha/The Economic Times
