Lahore airport: Air navigation to be upgraded

Instrument will help aircraft land at the visibility of up to 50 metres.


Our Correspondent August 22, 2015
ILS is a ground-based instrument approach system that provides precision guidance to an aircraft approaching and landing. PHOTO: APP

LAHORE: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has started upgrading the air navigation infrastructure at Allama Iqbal International Airport. 

Under the new aviation policy 2015, the up-gradation of Instrument landing System (ILS) CAT-IIIB, will help aircraft land at the visibility of up to 50 metres, currently under ILS CAT-II, which is functional since 1999. The runway visual range is 350 meters or more, which causes several delays in flight operations especially during the fog season.

“AIIA would be the second airport in the Asia Pacific region to have this state of the art facility, Delhi’s Indra Gandhi International Airport already is operating with this system”, said Mirza Akhtar, manager AIIAP and team lead of the project while briefing media on Saturday.

“Once installed, the system will help us to streamline the airport operations especially in winters, will help in saving the fuel thus portray a good image in the global aviation industry,” he added.

An ILS is a ground-based instrument approach system that provides precision guidance to an aircraft approaching and landing on a runway, using a combination of radio signals and in many cases, high-intensity lighting arrays to enable safe landing on runway.

The new system is supplemented by advances airfield lighting system and surface movement radar. Combination of these systems will facilitate precision approach and landing guidance to the aircraft in extreme weather conditions.

The cost of CAT-IIIB is $25 million, however, the system was gifted to Pakistan by Qatar.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23rd, 2015.

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COMMENTS (13)

Jamset | 8 years ago | Reply Given that Lahore Airport is only 43km from Amritsar, why not start a bus service from Lahore Airport to Hindustan? Lahore would profit a lot from all those passengers. And people that live in Amritsar can get home quicker. Win Win.
visitor | 8 years ago | Reply @soham: Really? i have seen the Delhi bus station and by the way what about those khatara buses in delhi airport? are they still carrying passenger form international to domestic terminals in non SC buses during June, July?
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