While the wait for overall expansion of the Coimbatore International Airport continues, more facilities are being added up by the Airport Authority of India (AAI).
The airport will soon have bigger turn pads on both ends of the runway that will enable smooth turning of aircraft, especially the bigger ones.
Airport Director S. Senthil Valavan said the runway already had turn pads on both ends, which would be expanded.
Bigger aircraft with wide body needs larger turn pads to turn on the ends of the runway. The existing runway at the airport, that is 05 and 23, is 2,990 metres long with a width of 45 metres, he said.
The runway could be expanded only if more land is acquired under the expansion project.
An AAI official said that wide-body aircraft such as Boeing 777 had landed in the airport.
The airport has got seven more new aprons or aircraft parking area. With this, the number of aprons at the airport has increased to 18. Mr. Senthil Valavan said that out of the new seven, five were meant for A 320 type aircraft and the remaining two for ATR type flights.
He said the new aprons were added mainly to accommodate base flights that make night halts at the airport and leave for their destinations in the early hours.
According to the Airport Director, three base flights are currently operational from Coimbatore to three cities namely Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai.
He added that the addition of new aprons may prompt airlines to operate more base flights and avail the State Government’s concession for the VAT for aviation turbine fuel for flights that operate between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.
