Dana-ready airport shuts after last flight at 7 pm, set to open at 9 am
Times of India | 25 October 2024
Kolkata: The last flight to depart from Kolkata was an IndiGo aircraft to Guwahati at 7pm on Thursday, an hour after the scheduled suspension of flights that the airport operator had announced on Wednesday evening. It is set to resume operations around 9 am on Friday.
Once passengers, airline ground staff, and maintenance staff vacated the building, only a handful of maintenance staff stayed behind to secure the terminal against strong winds and heavy rain forecast in the wake of Cyclone Dana.
However, 100 metres away, in another building at the airport, it was business as usual with controllers preparing for a busy night, providing navigational assistance to hundreds of international and some domestic flights to safely negotiate the treacherous weather over the Kolkata Flight Information Region. On a regular day, controllers at the airport handle around 1,300-1,400 flights in 24 hours. As most international flights travel through the Kolkata airspace at night, controllers handle around 900-1,000 flights between 6 pm and 9 am.
“We are ready to handle the usual number of flights but suspect the numbers will be lower as some flights will be cancelled while others take a reroute to avoid the storm. Most international flights between West and South-East Asia will skirt the oceanic airspace and either fly south of Vizag or north via Agartala, Rajsahi, and Jamshedpur. Some international flights could overfly China on Thursday-Friday,” a controller said.
While all flights want to avoid the airspace around a cyclone as the weather is unpredictable and causes extreme turbulence, once the cyclone makes landfall and the wind speed reduces, flights will only seek deviations. “Our job is to provide the plane’s safe passage. The flight captain decides the route and we ensure that the path is clear,” another controller said.
At the airport, the authorities started taking precautionary steps since evening. LED screens, loose panels, and other structures were brought down at the terminal gates while DigiYatra machines were unplugged and covered with plastic sheets. “We parked the flights inside hangars and secured their wings and wheels by tying them with chains and ropes. Passenger trolleys were also securely tied with ropes in the trolley bay. We placed sand sacks on both sides of glass doors to strengthen them against the heavy winds,” said Pravat Ranjan Beuria, the airport director.
Officials said solar panels and high mast lights were lowered and electronic display boards outside the terminal switched off and brought down. The wind cone at the airport that indicates wind speed and direction to pilots, was also drawn down.