Ahmedabad: The Gujarat chapter of the Travel Agents’ Federation of India (TAFI), has sought a deferment of re-carpeting of the runway at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International (SVPI) airport in Ahmedabad to March, instead of in January.
TAFI members contend that the resultant reduction in flights will affect passenger movements into Gujarat, adversely affecting tourism, which has just begun to revive since the pandemic hit. An email representation was sent to officials of Adani Airports and the Airports Authority of India (AAI), a copy of which is with TOI.
The city airport has a complete re-carpeting of the runway scheduled from January 3, 2022 to May 31, 2022, for which it recently received approval from the aviation regulator, the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA). In this period, the runway will be closed for flights from 9am to 6pm, which means flights will operate either before 9am or after 6pm.
“Due to the Covid pandemic, tourism has been one of the worst hit industries. In the recent days, travel companies are getting some business due to the increase in domestic tourism. The timings and dates for the runway repair will adversely affect business pace for the tourism industry,” the representation by TAFI states.
TAFI members have proposed that repair and maintenance work be executed at night i.e. from 10pm to 5am and begin from March 2022. The original plan of the city airport authorities was to undertake the re-carpeting work from November 10, 2021 till May 31, 2022. “Generally, Gujarat sees a lot of in-bound tourist traffic in January and February, especially due to the wedding season,” said Manish Sharma, chairman of the Gujarat chapter of TAFI.
22/10/21 Times of India
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