Mumbai airport

Varanasi Airport To Have A National Highway Under Its Runway!

AirWhizzAug 10, 2018 No Comments

Varanasi Airport To Have A National Highway Under Its Runway!

Aviation Insider

Varanasi’s Lal Bahadur Shastri (LBS) International Airport, is all set to undergo a unique revamp!

The airport’s runway will have a national highway running under it, which will make it India’s first ever airport runway with such a unique feature. The construction of an underpass will ensure the expansion of the runway for the landing of big airplanes.

Currently, authorities are working on extending the airport’s runway from 2750 meters to 4075 meters. National Highway (NH) 56 which will run under the runway and will be converted into a 4 lane road. The runway expansion and underpass construction are happening simultaneously.

According to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) Project Director, Mr. S.B.Singh, NH 56 will be India’s first highway to pass under an airport runway. The project will also solve the long-pending issue of deciding the alignment of the NH 56.

In 2004, Airports Authority Of India (AAI) had proposed for the expansion of the airport’s runway. However, as a railway track runs on the eastern side of the runway, the expansion could only take place on the west where the NH-56 exists.

The proposal was rejected for over a decade but in 2015 AAI sent a letter to the Utter Pradesh Government, seeking the required land. For the project, AAI acquired 593.77 acres of land in Mangari, Bikunthpur, Karmi, Ghamhapur  Karmi, Sagunaha and Pura Raghunathpur villages.

Australia’s Brisbane International Airport and Germany’s Leipzig/Halle Airport(In The Picture Above) are 2 such airports around the world which have national highways running underneath their runways.

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Second International Airport To Open In Goa To Boost Tourism!

AirWhizzAug 09, 2018 No Comments

Second International Airport To Open In Goa To Boost Tourism!

Aviation Insider

In a bid to cater to the increasing tourism in Goa, authorities will soon open a second international airport in Mopa, which is located in the north side of the state.

The upcoming Mopa Airport will be a greenfield airport and will have a capacity to handle around 30 million passengers in a year.

The airport will be built in 4 phases and will handle both passengers and cargo. In a letter to MLA Nilesh Cabral the Chief Minister of Goa, Mr. Manohar Parrikar, has asked to assign Rs 1900 crores for phase 1 of the project.

Phase 1 of the construction will be completed by 2020. Flight operations will commence thereafter and the commencement of phase 2 will start simultaneously.

Passenger capacity will be distributed throughout the four phases of the Mopa Airport, and eventually, by the end of phase 4, it will be able to fly 30 million passengers each year.

According to Mr. Parrikar, the annual passenger handling capacity of Mopa Airport will be 4.4 million in phase 1, 5.8 million phase 2, 9.4 million in phase 3 and 13.1 million in phase 4.

He has also said that the current Dabolim International Airport, which is a military-operated facility, will continue handling civilian aircraft operations even after the commissioning of the new international airport at Mopa.

The new airport will help bring in more tourists to the state, and the Dabolim Airport won’t have to take in too much of the passenger pressure. In 2016, Goa witnessed a 19.5 % growth in tourist footfalls (63.31 lakh tourists) and in 2017, that percentage increased to 22.98 %, with a total footfall of 77.85 lakh tourists.

Goa, being one of the prime tourist locations in India, attracts a massive crowd, especially during the winter months. With the opening of a second airport, travellers will have more options during the tourist season.

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Authorities Are Preparing Indian Airports To Handle Natural Disasters!

AirWhizzAug 08, 2018 No Comments

Authorities Are Preparing Indian Airports To Handle Natural Disasters!

Aviation Insider

In a bid to protect Indian airports from natural disasters, Airports Authority of India (AAI) is conducting the ‘‘Get Airports Ready for Disaster” or GARD programme in the country.

GARD is a joint initiative between Deutsche Post DHL Group (DPDHL) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

This initiative is aimed at preparing airports to chalk out a plan to resist any kind of natural disaster. The pilot project of this initiative is being conducted at the Calicut International Airport in Kozhikode. Operations experts from 15 airports in India are attending this 5-day session, which started on Monday.

The GARD project ensures that the airport management is prepared to handle emergency situations such as failure of electricity/fuel supply, passenger/flight operations and security measures which often takes place during a natural disaster.

The experts will learn how to evaluate the current level of preparedness at airports, conduct training exercises, and develop an action plan to ensure that airports are prepared for natural disasters in the future. Till now, the GARD training programme has been conducted in 40 countries.

According to DPDHL’s Director of Humanitarian Efforts, Chris Weeks, this is the first time the GARD programme is being conducted at a global level to train airport operators in countries which are above the average risk for natural disasters.

UNDP’s Assistant Country Director, Dr. Preeti Soni, has said that with increased climate change vulnerability, it is essential to improve national capacities and resilience against natural disasters. This can be achieved by training local authorities in special customs & immigration and having a passenger evacuation plan or accommodation within airports for the first 72 hours of an emergency situation.

With heavy rains disrupting day to day flight operations in India, this programme will surely help airport operators manage such situations and make life easier for air travellers.

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GVK Looking To Increase Navi Mumbai Airport’s Capacity!

AirWhizzAug 06, 2018 No Comments

Authorities at the GVK-led Navi Mumbai International Airport are looking to raise its passenger handling capacity.

They plan to increase the initial 10 million passengers per year capacity to 20 Million passengers and the overall 60 Million passenger handling capacity to 90 Million passengers. According to a spokesperson at GVK, the company is planning to increase the capacity based on the projected growth in air passenger movement.

If GVK wants to go ahead with this plan, they will have to take permission from the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO), the nodal body that has approved and awarded the project.

The decision to expand may however, push the date of starting operations at the airport beyond the government mandated 2020-21. It may take 3 to 4 years to build the airport with the new capacity requirements.

The initial investment will also increase, however, no one has confirmed this as of now. The total project cost is currently estimated at about Rs 16,000 Crores.

If this plan goes through, Navi Mumbai Airport will ultimately have three terminals, with the provision for a fourth. It will be able to handle 120 parked, landing and taxiing airplanes.

The much-delayed Navi Mumbai airport is seen as a critical alternative to the existing airport in India’s financial capital. Mumbai’s airport is India’s second busiest and also its most congested. It handled 48.5 million passengers in 2017-18 and holds the record for being the world’s busiest single-runway airport.

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Delhi Airport Will Soon Deploy Bomb & Bullet Proof Vehicles!

AirWhizzAug 04, 2018 No Comments

Delhi Airport Will Soon Deploy Bomb & Bullet Proof Vehicles!

Aviation Insider

In recent months, a lot of questions have been raised over the amount of security at airports in India!

In response to those questions and to raise security levels, authorities at the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) are planning to procure bullet-proof vehicles for the airport’s security.

These vehicles will be used by Central Industrial Security Force’s (CISF) Quick Response Team (QRT) to counter a crisis situation that may arise in the future.

Delhi Airport will become the first airport in India to deploy such vehicles for security purposes.

The per unit cost of these bullet-proof vehicles will be somewhere around Rs 25 to 40 lakh which will also have light machine gun installed in them. The vehicles will also be bomb resistant. Authorises are planning to deploy 7 such vehicles at the Delhi Airport.

At a time when there have been many vehicular terrorist attacks ( Also Known As Lone-Wolf Attacks) globally, these vehicles will help security teams, to counter such attacks and protect one of the busiest airports in the world in a better way.

The measure has been taken after a series of alerts from intelligence agencies about the possibility of such an attack by terror outfits. CISF is hoping that these vehicles will arrive before this year’s Independence Day.

According to a senior CISF official, these bullet-proof vehicles will patrol the periphery of the airport and will keep a tight check around the terminal areas. There are adequate security checks before anybody gets inside the airport, therefore, no attack can take place within the terminal.

In June 2007, Glasgow airport in Scotland witnessed a terrorist attack wherein a vehicle loaded with propane cans rammed into the glass doors of the airport terminal and was set ablaze.

Delhi Airport falls under the category of “hypersensitive airports of the country”. To tackle such situations, these multi-utility vehicles will be the only resort.

 

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Navi Mumbai Airport’s Phase 1 Construction May Overshoot 2019 Deadline!

AirWhizzAug 02, 2018 No Comments

Navi Mumbai Airport’s Phase 1 Construction May Overshoot 2019 Deadline!

Aviation Insider

Maharashtra Government’s much-anticipated project, the Navi Mumbai Airport may not be able to start operations by the end of 2019.

According to Civil Aviation Ministry officials, factors such as rehabilitating hundreds of displaced villagers around the construction area and delay in pre-development work may result in the airport opening in 2020 -2021.

The Navi Mumbai International Airport is being developed under a public-private partnership between Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) & City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Ltd (CIDCO).

According to a concession agreement signed by the 2 stakeholders, the construction of the airport is to be completed by 2021. But a large chunk of pre-development work is yet to be finished and authorities say that it is difficult to build a runway and operationalize a terminal building in 16-17 months.

CIDCO is responsible for implementation of this airport project. The project is located in an area spread across 1160 hectares, with a river, a few hills and more than 10 villages in its immediate vicinity.

CIDCO has said that they can complete the 1st phase by end of 2019, however, many villagers are holding up to receive more benefits from the government to vacate their lands, while some are not ready to move at all.

As a result, a large chunk of pre-development work that includes blasting hills, diverting the Ulwe river, filling up water bodies and leveling of land, is yet to be completed. The ongoing monsoon season has also slowed development work.

CIDCO’s joint Managing Director, Mrs. Prajakta Lavangare, who is overseeing the project says that despite the tight deadline, the agency has been meeting time-defined targets and is inching towards its objective.

She also said that most of the villages have vacated, however, they expect the others to move out by the end of September 2018.

The Navi Mumbai airport, a much-delayed project, was first proposed in 1997 as a secondary airport to support the busy Mumbai airport. Estimated to cost ₹ 3,000 crores, the Navi Mumbai airport received the government’s approval only in 2007.

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System Glitch At The Mumbai Airport Delays More Than 50 Flights!

AirWhizzAug 01, 2018 No Comments

System Glitch At The Mumbai Airport Delays More Than 50 Flights!

Aviation Insider

Several flights at the Mumbai airport were delayed after the airport management system developed a glitch on Tuesday.

The computer software, which carries out vital airport functions, crashed for more than an hour causing the flight display and check-in counter screens to go blank.

Here are all the details about the incident –

  • The technical glitch made it difficult to carry out the check-in and baggage handling process from 4:45 p.m. to 6 p.m.
  • Flights which were ready to depart post 5:15 p.m. were majorly affected.
  • Most of the flights got delayed between 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
  • Even though the system was restored by 6:00 p.m, the airport saw a delay of many departure flights post 8 p.m.
  • Almost 50 flights were delayed for more than 30 mins due to the system glitch

The major congestion at the airport was caused at Terminal 2 of the Chattrapati Shivaji International Airport.

With the check-in counter and flight display screens blank during peak hour airport traffic, the queue at different airline counters grew with every passing minute. Airlines handled check-in manually till the error was fixed.

Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) released a statement saying that they regret the inconvenience caused to passengers due to the unexpected management software glitch. Their team resolved this issue in the shortest possible time to resume flight operations at the airport.

The Mumbai airport is the second busiest in the country after Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. Last month, Mumbai airport was ranked the fifth least punctual in the world in a study by OAG, a global leader in flight information.

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Government’s “Digi Yatra” Initiative To Kickstart In 2 Months!

AirWhizzJul 31, 2018 No Comments

Government’s “Digi Yatra” Initiative To Kickstart In 2 Months!

Aviation Insider

Government’s much anticipated “Digi Yatra” scheme is all set to be rolled out to make flying hassle-free for travellers in India.

According to Union Minister, Mr. Suresh Prabhu, Civil Aviation Ministry’s “Digi Yatra” facility is expected to be implemented at Indian airports in the coming 2 months.

The initiative, aims at making air travel ‘Paperless’ by using new age technology throughout a passenger’s airport journey. The ministry aims to do this by making ticket booking, airport entry and boarding pass security check-in completely digital.

Under this system, the passenger’s biometrics, such as facial or iris, will be captured once they enter the airprot and the person will be able to go through it and board the flight without showing their tickets or paper documents.

Mr.Prabhu also said that the system will not just be Aadhaar-based. The passenger has the choice to provide any identification and if somebody doesn’t want to reveal their identity, they can go through the normal process. This will ensure that the government does not violate Supreme Court’s privacy guidelines while implementing this system.

The government is also working on a comprehensive and integrated plan for 2035 Indian Aviation, which is expected to be ready in the next few months.

This plan is a vision of what Indian aviation industry will look like by 2035.It involves incorporating new age infrastructure at Indian airports  and manufacturing of airplanes/drones.

Technology under the “Digi Yatra” scheme has been tested on a trial basis and has been a success at major Indian airports such as Hyderabad , Bangalore , Bombay & Delhi.

Here are a few benefits that passengers can enjoy once the “Digi Yatra” system is implemented –

  • Fast airport entry and automated check-ins without having to use paper documents
  • Walk through security scanners swiftly, thanks to advanced biometric security systems
  • Real-time updates on delays, protocols, airline timings, queue lengths etc on the phone itself
  • Navigation through the airport using digital guidance systems, interactive kiosks and Augmented Reality(AR) apps
  • Real-time notifications when the luggage reaches the baggage claim belt
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