CHENNAI: Hapless passengers who continue to be stranded at the Chennai airport may soon find a way out of the city , as the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is considering operating flights on just 5,000 feet of the total 12,000 foot-long runway that remains usable.
Airport officials are planning to resume operations on Sunday while Air India started evacuating those who wished to fly to Bengaluru and Hyderabad on Thursday . Meanwhile, the Navy's base at Arakkonam is serving as the makeshift airport for supplying relief material as well as for bringing in National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams.
Sources said airport officials and airlines are conducting a series of meetings to chalk out plans. "The entire operational area of the airport, including the runway is flooded. Water from Adyar river is flowing into the airport from Meenambakkam village and Cantonment area," said a senior officer, seeking anonymity .
The campus of Indian Oil Corporation and air traffic control block are also flooded and it is doubtful if the water could be drained out by Sunday , he said. "That is why we are thinking of operating the usable portion of the runway ," he said.
Passengers were taken by bus to Tambaram air force station from where they were flown to INS Rajali in Arakonam using a Hercules transport plane. Air India then operated a few flights from Arakonam naval base to Bengaluru and Hyderabad. This was, however, a temporary measure to help stranded passengers who wanted to travel urgently out of the city. "It is not possible to shift all operations to Arakonam as commercial airliners' requirement is different," said an official. The air traffic control of Trichy provided support for the Chennai airport due to the shutting down for flights which were diverted.
With the airport at Chennai closed till December 6, the flights to the city from Trichy , Coimbatore and Madurai remains cancelled.Air India Express that was supposed to fly from Chennai to Singapore via Trichy was suspended with more than 160 passengers waiting here.
Meanwhile, limited commercial flight operations are likely to start from the Rajali naval air station in Arakkonam, near Chennai, on Friday , the civil aviation ministry said on Thursday . Briefing the media, civil aviation secretary R N Choubey said a plan is being made to operate at least six flights on Friday and Saturday to be operated from Rajali naval base. He added that Air India, IndiGo and SpiceJet have indicated they would operate flights.
The proposal is for limited commercial flight operations only and not for evacuation of people, Choubey said. Minister of state for civil aviation, Mahesh Sharma said the proposed flights from the Rajali naval base would offer tickets at low prices. "The airlines will charge Rs 1,000 for destinations in the South and Rs 2,000 for destinations in the North for these flights," Sharma said.
Flight grounded after co-pilot refuses to fly
Chennai: As the national carrier rose to face the crisis in Chennai, a thoughtless act on the part of one of its pilots has resulted in several passengers getting stranded at the Chennai airport.
An Air India aircraft is also stuck at the airport because of this since December 1.
Air India's AI 967 Chennai-Trivandrum-Sharjah flight had to be cancelled on December 1, the day the torrential rain started, after a co-pilot refused to operate stating it would lead to infringement of his flight duty time by 10 minutes in Sharjah.
By the time, the airline arranged another co-pilot, the airport was shut down.
Sources said the co-pilot was "well within his duty period to operate up to Trivandrum and Air India would have had one more aircraft at its disposal if he had done so.
He could have also operated to Sharjah by invoking a provision in the regulations as the DGCA permits extension of duty time limitations in case of exigencies."
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment