Precision of aircraft movement at the Cochin International Airport Limited is set to improve further with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) slated to install another set of Instrument Landing System (ILS) at the westerly approach of its 3,400-metre runway.
The proposal for installing a CAT-1 (Category -1) type ILS at the 09 end of the runway has been agreed upon with the AAI and the airport company will soon start the construction works in the area marked for the facility, said CIAL officials. Installation of a second ILS at Kochi was a long-pending demand by the various airlines.
The ILS is a ground-based system that provides guidance to an aircraft in approaching and landing on a runway by a combination of radio signals and high-intensity lighting arrays. It guides pilots on a specific glide path approach, helping aircraft descend to lower altitudes before making visual contact with the runway during periods of inclement weather.
“The second ILS will help avoid diversions and delays in case the existing ILS at the eastern end (27) does not operate for a variety of reasons. This is particularly significant during the monsoon and the winter season when visibility level at one side fall below the stipulated level while the runway on the other end remains relatively clear’’, said ACK Nair, Airport Director. The CIAL typically experiences low visibility weather conditions due to high rainfall during monsoon, which is also the region’s peak travel season.
The new system is also expected to cut down significantly the cost of operations and the time to complete the landing procedure for each aircraft. “Presently, every aircraft approaching CIAL has to hover round the airport for an average of 11 minutes and cover an additional distance of about 40 nautical miles before landing. Once the second ILS becomes operational, we expect this time and distance to go down by nearly 40 per cent’’, said another official.
Of the 530 international landings per week here, over 80 per cent are from the Middle East destinations that approach the airport from the south-west direction. “With an ILS at the 09 end, these aircraft can straightaway carry out landing without having to hold in the air for that long,” he explained.
The airline companies, meanwhile, welcomed the step and said it would help them get the planes safely to the ground. “This leads to less burning of fuel, which, in the long run, will have a positive impact on cost of operation’’, pointed out Aby George, Deputy Chief of Customer Relations, Air India Express.
