Airports Authority of India (AAI) today said Srinagar International Airport is ready for operation of night flights and it was for airlines to obtain clearances from the regulatory body, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
"Basically, we are ready, the infrastructure is ready. Since, this airport is a civil enclave, it was supposed to be cleared by Indian Air Force and IAF has already cleared it for night operations up to 10.00 PM," Director, Airport Authority of India here, R K Shinde, told reporters.
He said, it was for those airlines, "which are interested to commence the operations, to take a call. The only thing that they have to obtain is a clearance from the DGCA."
Once the clearance from the DGCA is there, night operations from this airport will be started, Shinde said.
A team of DGCA is expected to visit the airport this month to take stock of facilities for starting the night operations.
The Director said a number of steps have been taken to strengthen the security at the airport particularly after the Pathankot attack.
"This is a hypersensitive airport and that is why since the beginning we have J-K police for anti-hijacking purpose and CRPF, with arms deployed here," he said.
After the Pathankot incident, number of steps have been taken to further strengthen the security like multiple checking of the passengers as well as luggage, secondary ladder-point checking, he said.
"We have deployed additional Quick Response Teams which used to move to and fro and keep the vigil in the airport area," he added.
The director said that considering the continuous growth of the airport, AAI has planned expansion of the airport for which the works are already in the pipeline.
The expansion has been considered to handle the traffic to the tune of 5.72 million passengers per annum by the end of 2023, an increase from 2.04 million passengers per annum right now.
The building size, right now, is around 19,700 square metres.
"We are going to add an additional capacity of 33,000 square metre and this expansion will be on the left side of the existing terminal because we are already in a constraint. We will then have two additional aircraft stands, so that total stands will become 11. Also we will be having a common user domestic terminal to handle the domestic cargo in better manner," he said.
We are going to have free wi-fi at this airport in
coordination with BSNL. The equipment installation is over and maybe within a week s time we will commission free wi-fi system, the director added.
He said Srinagar International Airport has been rated as the second best airport world over in terms of customer satisfaction ratings.
For the customer satisfaction ratings, all airports are rated by Airports Council International (ACI) (a global non-profit organisation of airport operators), particularly those which come under the category of major airports.
So, in the last survey for quarter ending December 2015, ACI carried the survey and ASQ (Airport Service Quality) rating for Srinagar International Airport was recorded to be 4.77 out of five thus leading to the second in the world airports.
"So, we are second in providing good services to our valued passengers in the group of two million passengers handled per year," he said.
Sinde said the feat was achieved with the coordination, cooperation, excellent efforts and sincerity by all the colleagues, section in-charges and security personnel working at the airport.
"This is a team work and I feel proud of it. We have future plans to maintain this rating," he added.
