IGI's new runway to open soon

IGI airport’s new runway, which will help the airport deal with increased air traffic, is likely to open for trials from August 15, when Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd (DIAL) will have some planes land on the airstrip using category-I landing procedure.This plan comes on the heels of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) asking the AAI and the DIAL to work hand in hand to ensure that the runway is in operation in time to meet the government set deadline, which is the first quarter of 2009. Caliberational work for navigational aids on the runway took place on Monday and Tuesday.The new runway will increase the airport’s capacity from the present 36 landings/take-offs an hour to 65. According to sources, the trial runs will take place for a few days and the runway will be made operational for commercial flights by the end of August or beginning of September. “Almost all civil and technical works have been completed and trial runs should begin soon,’’ confirmed a DIAL official. Sources added that trials will involve only landings at present to save airlines from taxiing an extra 4km and spend on precious aviation turbine fuel. Airlines sources said that they had been told to be prepared to use the new runway. Once this runway is fully operational by September, the main runway would be closed for recarpeting and would not be available for a while. “This leaves us with just the secondary and new runway. Since the secondary runway is much smaller, and is usually used for landings, domestic airlines will just have to use the new runway. This could put a huge dent on our already critical financial situation,’’ said a private airline official.