Rafique Aziz
Aurangabad, Feb 23:
If everything goes well, the flights arriving at the airport from the west directions (Mumbai and Ahmedabad) will be able to land safely as the Airport Authority of India (AAI) has successfully completed the Global Navigation Sattelite System (GNSS) based trial of the flight on Runway 09, on Monday. After approval of the trial results by the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and its printing in Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP, India), it will be used by all aircraft.
The assistant general manager (Air Traffic Control) Vinayak Katke confirmed the development. " Previously, the GNSS based trial of the flight was completed successfully on Runway 27 in September 2020. Hence the flights (coming from Delhi) arriving from the east direction (Chikalthana side) could land at the airport safely. Today, the GNSS-based trial of the flight was done successfully on Runway 09. Hence the flights (coming from Mumbai and Ahmedabad) arriving from the west directions (Cidco/Jaibhavaninagar side) could also land safely at the airport without any hassles," pointed out Katke.
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Earlier, the planes coming from Mumbai or Ahmedabad directions would have to take a U-turn for landing at the airport. They would travel overhead in the direction of Shendra and then, taking a turn, would land the aircraft on Runway 27 from the east direction. Now, there will be no need to take a U-turn. The flights would be able to land through Runway 09 at the airport directly. In adverse climate situation (foggy or rainy), there will be a safe landing. It will save the time of flight's landing and valuable time of customers on-board. This will also improve the on-time performance of airlines and bring efficiency in airspace utilisation. Above all, it will reduce fuel cost, carbon emissions and congestion in air traffic, explained the AGM (ATC).
Will be saving 10 minutes per flight!
Katke underlined, " In this procedure, aircraft is guided by satellite argumentation systems like GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO (more than one system can be used at the same time to enhance reliability) to ensure the safe landing. This will reduce timings of flights coming from Mumbai and Ahmedabad directions by or up to10 minutes. This procedure can be used in foggy and rainy condition with visibility as low as 900 meters. The requirement of clear visibility from a distance of 5 km from the airport will now be a thing of the past. The introduction of a new GNSS system is indeed a major improvement in the existing system. This is indeed one of the major landmarks for Aurangabad Airport in terms of airport utilisation efficiency."