Simultaneous Operations from Main and Secondary Runways at Chennai Airport; Trails Start

Chennai Airport has started simultaneous operations from main runway and secondary runway from Thursday. Chennai became India’s second airport to have this facility, The New Indian Express reported  Airport Authority of India general manager (air traffic management) Pradeep Kandoth as saying.

This is the second attempt in Chennai Airport to have simultaneous operations after the first one in 2007 was aborted due to technical reasons. This will help increase the capacity of the airport as it can now handle 40 to 42 flights in an hour. During the trial run on Thursday, eight departures from secondary runway, five from main runway and nine arrivals on main runway were handled.

The implementation of simultaneous operations will be made permanent after a three month trial period.

The secondary runway will handle departures while the primary runway will handle both departures and arrivals. This will minimise the delay for departures and it will also reduce the conflicts in airspace. By virtue of allocation of runways based on type and route, the track miles for the aircraft will also be reduced, Pradeep Kandoth told the New Indian Express.

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