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Indira Gandhi International Airport's third runway 11-29 opens for commercial operations
Indira Gandhi International Airport's third runway 11-29, opened for
commercial operations today. At 0618 hours this morning, a Boeing 777
300 aircraft operated by British Airways became the first commercial
flight to operate from the new runway. IGI Airport is now the country?s
only airport with three operational runways.
The
runway, inaugurated 6 months ahead of schedule is the longest runway in
India and is capable of handling the largest aircraft category i.e.
Code F which comprises of giants like the Airbus A380 and the Antonov
An-225. The runway had earlier been inaugurated by Hon?ble Minister of
Civil Aviation, Praful Patel when the first proving flight - a Boeing
777 operated by Air India landed on 21 August 2008.
In the
initial phase, the new runway 11-29 will be operated in tandem with the
existing runway 10-28 During this period, runway 28 will be used for
all departure flights, while all flight arrivals will take place on
runway 29. The ATC, AAI, DIAL and airlines are all working together to
gain experience on the new operating procedures. The global practice
for introduction of new safety critical infrastructure is to always
phase the introduction on an incremental basis.
Since runways
11-29 and 10-28 are parallel, their simultaneous operation will
significant expand IGIA's capacity to handle aircraft movements. In
addition, the runway is a equipped with CAT IIIB instrument landing
system at both ends allowing compatible aircraft to land even when the
visibility is as low as 50m. This will complement the existing CAT IIIB
equipment on runway 10-28 making IGI airport the only one in India to
have twin runways with this advanced instrument landing system in
addition an advanced surface movement guidance system, featuring
induction loop sensors has been deployed to track the movement of the
aircraft along the runway.
The company made this announcement during the trading hours today, 25 September 2008.