From October 1, big aircraft can land in Chandigarh airport

CHANDIGARH: The Chandigarh airport is all set to spread its wings with wide-bodied aircraft, as the runway would be open to ‘category 4E aircraft’ from October 1. It means the wide-bodied aircraft including Boeing 777, B747-400, Airbus 330, and Boeing 787-800 (Dreamliner) would be able to operate from Chandigarh airport from October 1.

The existing runway had a serious bottleneck, as it was not permissible to allow wide-bodied aircraft meant for long-haul flights to land.



Explaining the development, highly-placed sources in the Indian Air Force (IAF), which is carrying out the runway carpeting work, told TOI that all the ‘turn pads’area at the end of runway for the purpose of manoeuvring the aircraft— are made for ‘Cat 4E’ class of aircraft to enable all the airbus class of aircraft to turn safely.

Sources further informed that non-load bearing (NLB) surface of 7.5 metre width is catered for around all newlylaid and resurfaced areas. This will enable engine protection for all heavy aircraft including B-747 Jumbo.

The existing working length of runway has also been extended from 7,200 feet to 8,600 feet with complete NLB work on this 8,600 feet stretch. The carpeting work on one side of the runway (number 295—Zirakpur side) has been completed and work on Mohali side is on full swing.

Aviation experts believes facility to operate wide-bodied aircraft at Chandigarh airport may increase the number of flights, which in turn would lead to an increase in seats, load carrying capacity, resulting in more revenue for the airport.

Operation of such widebodied aircraft would help the city in connecting major international destinations including USA, Europe Canada, and the UK.

The existing runway can cater to middle-body aircraft that could fly only to domestic destinations and few short international destinations including Dubai, Sharjah and Bangkok.

Significantly, IAF would be completing the work of making runway ‘Cat 4E’ class aircraft within the deadline of September 30 given by the Air Force in a joint meeting of all stakeholders held on August 11 at UT guest house, Chandigarh. Other stakeholders, which participated in the meeting were Airports Authority of India (AAI), Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) and Chandigarh International Airport Limited (CHIAL).

IAF, which controls the runway and air traffic control (ATC) of local airport, had set a deadline for every work it is undertaking for the international airport. However, no such deadlines were set by other authorities including Gmada, which has to remove encroachments around the airbase and CHIAL and AAI, which has entrusted to some work related to airport.