Panaji: Certain navigational aids would
not be available to pilots at the Goa Airport due to the
ongoing maintenance work and it would affect flight schedules,
airport officials said on Tuesday.
Goa Airport Director D Paul Manickam said that Indian
Navy has undertaken maintenance work of the runway which would
go on for the next two months affecting aircraft movement.
The maintenance work is undertaken from 8.30 AM to 1
PM and 3 pm to 5.30 pm.
During this period the full runway and certain
navigational aids would not be available, but normal landings
and takeoffs can take place outside the maintenance hours.
He stated that many airlines have rescheduled their
timings since April 4, when the maintenance began.
"Airports which have a second runway available can
carry out maintenance on each runway alternately. But airports
like Dabolim which have only one runway have to make
arrangements to inter-weave maintenance work with daily
operations," he said.
Referring to media reports that six airlines had
flouted norms by carrying out `blind landing` at Goa airport
in the absence of navigational aid on a shortened runaway, he
claimed that though there were some landings on the shortened
runway, they could not be called `blind landings`.
He said that Naval authorities in Goa have consulted
all operators and AAI before commencing work.
"A working-level meeting was held at airport for
discussing the required maintenance work on March 25 under the
aegis of the Naval authorities," he said, adding that a
special programme has been developed wherein no flight is
required to be cancelled and the bare minimum changes would
occur.
"To ensure this, all maintenance work commences only
at 9 am when military hours of flying begin. All morning civil
flights up to 0830 am continue as before. Maintenance work is
also stopped between 1 pm-3 pm, the peak hours for civil air
traffic," he said.
"Even thereafter, when maintenance work restarts at 3
PM and goes upto 6 pm, airliners have the option to land and
take off but length of the runway would be shorter and few
aids such as PAPI (Precision Approach Path Indicator), which
are physically fixed on the ground, would not be available for
the period," he added.
The Indian Navy manages the Dabolim international
airport here (popularly known as Goa Airport).
PTI
