Flying to the pilgrim town of Shirdi for the darshan of Sai Baba will soon become a reality. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday issued an aerodrome licence to Shirdi airport, which has a runway long enough for an Airbus A-320 and Boeing 737 aircraft to land.
In a statement, DGCA said it issued the licence to Shirdi airport for day operations after ensuring compliance with all relevant standards. “The Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) has developed a green field airport at Kakadi village in Ahmednagar district for which the Ministry of Civil Aviation had granted ‘in principal’ approval in 2011,” the DGCA statement said.
The runway of the airport is 2,500 meters in length and is capable of handling Code 3C type aircraft, which include the Airbus 320 and Boeing 737.
Suresh Kakani, vice-chairman and managing director, MADC, confirmed that the airport was ready and flight operations would start from October 1 to coincide with the 100th death anniversary of Sai Baba. “All the points raised during the DGCA inspection have been fulfilled. All that now remains is the start of flight operations,” Mr. Kakani said.
Zoom Air, Alliance Air and TruJet have expressed a desire to start operations.
