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Lackadaisical response to night flights at Jammu airport
Subodh Bhasin. Dated: 2/13/2019 11:54:51 AM
Subodh Bhasin
Jammu, Feb 12
Even though the Airports Authority of India (AAI) extended watch hours at the Jammu Airport on January 1 this year, it has received a poor response for the night flights from airlines.
The decision which was aimed to provide much-needed boost to various sectors particularly tourism and to pilgrims to the famous shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi to be benefited as such the runway watch hours at the airport are from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm were extended which was earlier up to 4.30 pm.
Due to poor response only one airline GoAir has submitted its schedule for the Jammu-Delhi evening flight for 7 pm which is , likely to be started in the upcoming summer.
As such expansion work is still pending the other airlines have not extended their interest. The expansion work of airport is likely to be completed which is likely to be completed by March 2020
It is worthwhile to mention here that watch hours in aviation refers to the operational period for flight services at an airport and the extension in the watch hours was started to enable the flights to take off and land at the Jammu Airport during the late evening hours, thereby increasing the number of flights moving in and out from Jammu.
As the airport has only 6,700-foot-long runway, the airlines are facing loss on the Jammu route as the flights landing at Jammu airport cannot fly with the full load. The short runway also forces the pilots to use emergency brakes at the time of landing in the winter capital of the state.
As the Airports Authority of India has started the expansion of the runway up to 8,000 feet which will give a big push to the tourism sector in particular besides further improving the connectivity with other parts of the country.