Kempegowda International Airport in the city of Bengaluru, became South India’s First Airport to have parallel runways operating. The inaugural flight in this set-up was the incoming aircraft from Lucknow operated by IndiGo touching down on Kempegowda’s northern runway.
The Aviation Sector Of Karnataka To Benefit
Bengaluru is currently the fastest growing technology hub in the world, and such advances in Airport Operations capabilities will only serve to safeguard that position. Furthermore, the expectation is that Karnataka’s wider Aviation Industry will also realise the benefits of the aforementioned upgrades.
Bengaluru International Airport Limited (who operate Bengaluru Airport) echo such visions. Their spokesperson said, “The two runways will further bolster our vision to transform Bengaluru Airport into the new gateway to India.”
Visions Of Visibility
The northern runway at Bengaluru Airport had to undergo renovations in June 2020, in order to be compliant with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) regulations, and was consequently closed until now.
The southern runway is CAT III-B equipped, which means landing and take-offs are permitted with just 50 metres of runway visibility. Meanwhile, the northern runway is CAT-I equipped, which permits take-offs and landings with just 125 metres of runway visibility. This therefore demonstrates the Airport’s ability to cater for flights in challenging weather conditions.
Whilst there were plans to enable the northern runway to also be CAT III-B compliant, this has been put on hold due to the current fall in flight frequencies resulting from the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, low visibility weather conditions are not commonplace in and around Bengaluru, and as such, there is not yet an urgent need for both runways to be CAT III-B compliant.
In addition to the runway technical implementations, the state of Karnataka will now require a negative RT-PCR Covid-19 Test from all travellers entering the state.
