The Hindu

MANGALORE, Mar 5: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is all set to commission a new taxiway connecting the two runways at Bajpe airport, shortly.

This taxiway will reduce the distance of manoeuvring the aircraft on the runway by a maximum of three km. and minimum one km. It will save the runway occupancy time and fuel for aircraft. It would mean a saving of about five minutes for air passengers. The new taxiway will enable the airport to handle more traffic.

R. Vasudeva, director of AAI, told The Hindu that the civil work on the taxiway had been completed. The work had begun in April last. The bituminous taxiway is 468-m long and 38 m wide, including shoulder width. The newly laid concrete runway is 2,450 m in long and the old bituminous runway 1,650 m long.

Advantage

“At present, aircrafts landing on the new runway at the north-east end of the terminal building have to run till the end of the new runway in south-westerly direction and return to the same point where it had landed before proceeding on the old runway to reach the parking place. In this process, the aircrafts have to run six km to park. The new taxiway will reduce this to 3 km,” he said.

In case an aircraft lands from the south-east end, it could move on the taxiway and proceed to the apron which would save one km. It need not go to the North-East end to join the old runway and proceed to the parking stand. It will have saved about 1 km. At present, a plane landing on the South-East end it travels about 3.5 km to reaching the parking area.

“Another advantage is that an aircraft, after landing on the new runway, can vacate it early by using the taxiway and turn to the apron. Consequently, the waiting time for other aircraft will be reduced. If there is no aircraft for landing, the plane waiting to take off at the apron can vacate and turn to the new runway to take off,” Vasudeva said.