By IANS,
New Delhi: Instrumental landing system (ILS) has been made operation at the Agra airport to facilitate low-visibility aircraft operations during fog, the civil aviation ministry said Saturday.
“The new system with provisions of flight calibrator and appropriate landing procedures will make possible landing and take-off by aircrafts in cases of visibility as low as 800 metres,” the ministry said in a statement.
According to the statement, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) so far had a very high frequency omni-directional range navigation system at the airport for homing and landing of aircraft in visibility of up to 2,400 metres.
The AAI installed ILS at the airport about a year ago at a cost of about Rs.4 crore. The system then had to be certified by Directorate General Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Up to 700 charter flights come into Agra every year, each bringing 80-100 foreign tourists.
However, because of poor visibility and lack of ILS, the flights are forced to over-fly or cancelled, inconveniencing tourists.
In the last 15 days, about 15 flights had to be diverted from Agra for lack of proper visibility.
AAI’s present civil terminal is located within the Indian Air Force area without a separate corridor for the entry or exit or for parking of private aircrafts.