July 14, 2011, CHANDIGARH: Despite being fully prepared, Chandigarh will be unable to operate international flights taking from its airport anytime soon. It has not yet received the customs clearance necessary to operate flights to other countries.
According to Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials, the “customs airport” status approval may take another four to five months. After this status is obtained, the local airport will be able to start its immigration and customs facilities for limited international operations. In India, the currently designated customs airports include Hyderabad, Bangalore, Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Calicut, Cochin, Goa, Varanasi, Patna, Agra, Jaipur and Tiruchirapalli.
Captain H S Toor, director of the Chandigarh airport, said that airport officials were discussing customs airport status designation with the Union government, pressing for an expedited decision and early notification.
Toor added that the airport is planning for international flights to start well before the year’s end.
For two years, residents of Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali have been waiting for international flights from the area. The airport came close in July 2009 with a proposed international flight for Dubai, but that was cancelled at the last moment due to insufficient infrastructure.
Then, in August 2010, local airport authorities and AAI proposed international flights to Dubai, Malaysia and Thailand as soon as its new terminal was complete. This year, the new building opened to receive Pakistan’s PM for the ICC World Cup semifinal match between India and Pakistan. It was announced at that time that international flights would start from June 2011. However, not much progress seems to have been made toward meeting this date.
The Confederation of Indian Industry and other business organizations have also expressed interest in connecting Chandigarh to international destinations.
Notification granting customs airport status could take a long time, sources say. Without the customs airport status, passengers from Tricity would have to continue their wait for international flights indefinitely. Additionally, the Indian Air Force (IAF), which controls the airport, has been withholding clearance for night landings for civilian aircraft at the airport. The IAF reportedly does not approve of these night landings.