11 flights face delays in landing at Surat Airport amid lack of CAT-I/CAT-II lighting systems

Surat: Due to the unavailability of CAT-I/CAT-II lighting systems, around 11 flights were delayed at Surat International Airport on Sunday. The inclement weather led to reduced visibility, and due to the absence of CAT-I/CAT-II lighting systems, flights from Delhi, Hyderabad, and Chennai circled the airspace for up to 1.5 hours on Sunday. This circling of these three flights resulted in fuel losses of ₹11.25 lakh for the airlines.

Since Sunday morning, Surat city has experienced sudden weather changes and a foggy atmosphere. As a result, visibility dropped below 800 meters, significantly impacting operations at Airport. Aircraft had to wait for clearance from Air Traffic Control (ATC) to land.

An IndiGo flight arriving from Delhi was instructed by ATC to circle in the air after entering Surat airspace due to low visibility. This flight had to circle for an hour, completing 14 loops. Similarly, a flight from Hyderabad to Surat had to make 14 loops before landing, delaying its departure by 45-50 minutes. A Chennai-Surat flight also arrived late, causing further delays; it took off for Bangkok from Surat at 11:30 AM instead of the scheduled 9:30 AM.

Though the runways at Surat Airport are equipped with an Instrument Landing System (ILS), visibility below 800 meters and the lack of Category-I (CAT-I) and Category-II (CAT-II) lighting systems have significantly impacted flight operations.

Furthermore, to save fuel costs and reduce circling over Surat airspace, airlines rescheduled the departures of flights from Delhi (DEL), Hyderabad (HYD), and Chennai (MAA) to Surat by approximately 1 to 1.20 hours. DeshGujarat