6 days Ago By Shariq Majeed
Ludhiana: Reduced visibility due to fog has hit operations of the lone flight from Ludhiana. Airport sources said that chances of the flight between Sahnewal near Ludhiana and Hindon in NCR operating regularly were slim as visibility was not likely to improve in the winter. According to information from Sahnewal Airport, the flight operated mostly regularly between March 1 and Oct 15.
Sources said that flight operations at Sahnewal airport were affected due to low visibility from last week of Oct. An official at the airport said that the winter schedule came into force from Oct 27 and will continue till March 29. During this time, the flight is expected to depart from Hindon at around 11am and land in Sahnewal at around 12.
20pm. It will depart from Sahnewal at 12.45pm.
However, he added that after the start of the winter schedule, the flight was cancelled due to low visibility in Sahnewal on Oct 28, 29, 30 and 31. The official added that visibility was much lower than the required 5,000 metres on these dates. In Nov, the flight operated only on Nov 1 and Nov 4.
It has been suspended since then as visibility was even lesser than 1,000 metres on many days. “As visibility mostly remains low due to fog in the winter, it is unlikely that the flight will operate regularly till around Feb 15. Even at airports like Amritsar, which have ILS (Instrument Landing System), many flights couldn’t land due to zero visibility recently,” said a source at the airport.
He added that the Sahnewal airport does not have such a system, which was a major hindrance in flight operations in the winter. Meanwhile, sources in the airport said that occupancy in the flight, before it started facing cancellations, was between five and 10 passengers on each side. They added that as flight operations suffer during the winter, passengers apprehend frequent cancellations.
An official in AAI (Airport Authority of India) said that operationalisation of the under-construction Halwara airport is important for proper operation of flights from Ludhiana. He added that the Halwara airport will have a longer runway and ILS for landing in low visibility. Meanwhile, many residents said that they did not choose to take the flight in the winter as it was cancelled frequently.
Upkar Singh, president, CICU (Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings), said that Sahnewal airport is a temporary arrangement. He pointed out that fog caused frequent flight cancellation in the winter at the airport, which does not have night landing facility. He said that this stopped international customers from coming to Ludhiana as they don’t prefer to travel by road or train.
The CICU president said that every day, around 400 taxis ferry passengers to IGI, Delhi and emphasised on the need to operationalise Halwara airport. He also said that the industry was suffering because of delay in its completion. “We have written to the Prime Minister and Aviation minister, requesting that the Halwara airport is made operational as early as possible,” said the CICU president.
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