Airport to battle delays caused by small planes

V Ayyappan| TNN | Oct 20, 2017, 08:52 IST





CHENNAI: While travellers are welcoming the operation of small planes to tier III cities to boost regional connectivity, there is a flip side -the skies will be more crowded, impacting the aircraft handling capacity of airports.

In a bid to prevent these small and slow aircraft from causing delays, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has lined up a series of steps to cut down the runway occu pancy time of planes at Chennai airport.

Worried that an increase in small plane traffic will slow down operations, the AAI is planning to sensitise pilots and air traffic controllers, commission simultaneous use of the main runway and second runway (crossrunway operations) and spe ed up construction of two rapid exit taxiways. AAI is planning to start cross-runway operations in December.

70-seater planes like ATRs and Bombardier Q400 have a slow climb rate after take-off and cruise at approximately 500kmph at 21,000ft. More such planes in the air would lead to more distance between planes as they are lined up to land at the airport. Indigo, SpiceJet and Jet Airways are gearing up to fly smaller planes to capture regional markets and also bid for routes.

Airports around the world are seeking to reduce the runway occupancy time of planes so that more slots can be given for landing and take-off. This warrants a runway exit strategy for pilots, enabling them to react promptly to take-off clearance and line up on the taxiway without delays.

A European programme has found that a five-second loss per aircraft can result in two missed runway slots per hour, says a report by Melbourne airport.

A senior AAI official said that meetings are being held on runway safety and utilisation. "The air traffic control procedures call for flights to be handled in a way that augments the runway's capacity. This has enabled the airport to handle 40 planes in an hour though the actual movement is only 28 planes per hour.

Airport director G Chandramouli said, "A lot of small planes will be flying as Udan will open up Salem, Belagavi and Mysuru. We may have to use the second runway for smaller planes and bring passengers by buses.Cross-runway operations and rapid exit taxiways are being planned to cut runway occupancy time. The airport now has an angular taxiway which helps planes exit the runway quicker."

It is estimated that airlines would be deploying more than 200 small aircraft in the next eight years.

Airlines are launching 70-seater flights to tier II and tier III cities as short traffic of up to 1,000km or less has seen an increase in demand.

IndiGo is launching its ATR flights by mid-December connecting Chennai to Mangaluru and Rajahmundry while SpiceJet will soon fly to Belagavi.