A new air route to West Asia from Tiruchi international airport is to be introduced soon to cut down flying time and save precious fuel for airlines operating in that sector.
The Air Space Management of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has conceived and drawn up the new route which has been approved by the Air Headquarters in New Delhi.
The new Air Traffic Services (ATS) route has been approved following a series of high-level discussions between the AAI and the Indian Air Force authorities along with the Air Traffic Control units of Chennai, Tiruchi, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram and Madurai airports.
Under the new ATS route, overseas flights operating in the Tiruchi – Dubai-Tiruchi and Tiruchi – Sharjah – Tiruchi sectors would pass through the airspace of Sulur Air Force station, Coimbatore and Calicut to join the ‘Mike-300’ international air route bound for West Asia.
Presently, international flights to Dubai and Sharjah from Tiruchi airport fly via Bengaluru and Belgaum to join the ‘P-574’ international route to West Asia. The Air India Express is the lone airline currently to operate daily flights to Dubai and Sharjah in the West Asian sector using its twin-engine Boeing 737-800 flights from Tiruchi.
Airport sources told The Hindu that consultations with the Air Force authorities was done to get their approval since a portion of the air space proposed under the new route belonged to the Sulur Air Force station.
As per the arrangement, the airspace has been allowed for passenger aircraft between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. on all days. The new route would be available for international passenger flights from March 30 onwards, a senior official said.
The new route is expected to save nearly 400 kilograms of fuel per flight and cut down flying time by around 10 minutes to Tiruchi.
The distance saved by taking the new route would be between 60 and 80 nautical miles, the official said adding that emission in the atmosphere would also get reduced correspondingly.
