To an unstarred question in the Rajya Sabha about the Night Landing facility at Airports in the country and the status of commissioning of the night landing facility at Kolhapur Airport, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Civil Aviation (Gen. (Dr) V. K. Singh (Retd) has responded in a written reply with the necessary details.
Modernisation of Airports is a Continuous Process:
The response states that the up-gradation/modernisation of airports, including the provision of night landing facilities is a continuous process and is undertaken by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and other airport operators from time to time depending on the availability of land, commercial viability, socio-economic considerations, traffic demand/willingness of airlines to operate to/from such airports etc.
Night Landing Facility is Need-Based :
Presently, night landing facility, which is purely demand and need based on the operational requirement of airlines and availability of land, is not available at 25 operational airports with scheduled flight operations as indicated in the below table.
Operational Airports with Scheduled flight operations without night landing facility:
| Sl.No | State | Name of the Airport |
| 1 |
Andhra Pradesh
|
Cudappah |
| 2 | Kurnool | |
| 3 | Assam | Rupsi |
| 4 |
Arunachal Pradesh
|
Tezu |
| 5 | Passighat | |
| 6 |
Chhattisgarh
|
Bilaspur |
| 7 | Jagdalpur | |
| 8 | Daman & Diu | Diu |
| 9 | Gujarat | Keshod |
| 10 | Haryana | Hisar |
| 11 |
Himachal Pradesh
|
Dharamshala |
| 12 | Kullu | |
| 13 | Shimla | |
| 14 | Jharkhand | Deoghar |
| 15 | Karnataka | Kalaburagi |
| 16 | Lakshadweep | Agatti |
| 17 |
Maharashtra
|
Kolhapur |
| 18 | Sindhudurg | |
| 19 | Punjab | Ludhiana |
| 20 | Puducherry | Puducherry |
| 21 | Sikkim | Pakyong |
| 22 | Tamil Nadu | Salem |
| 23 |
Uttarakhand
|
Pantnagar |
| 24 | Pithoragarh | |
| 25 | Uttar Pradesh | Kushinagar |
Night Landing Facility at Kolhapur Airport:
AAI has undertaken the installation of night landing facility at Kolhapur airport. A team of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has carried out the inspection of the airport on 10th June, 2022. AAI has already initiated action for compliance of the observations made by DGCA during the inspection.
