Noida airport clears takeoff, landing test

Noida: Noida International Airport conducted its first full aircraft turnaround trial with IndiGo on Tuesday, a mandatory pre-launch readiness test required by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the aviation regulator, before commercial flights begin on June 15.

Nodal officer Shailendra Bhatia said the exercise is part of the airport’s operational readiness programme that tests whether facilities, systems, staff and equipment are ready to handle live flight operations.

During the trial, an IndiGo aircraft — flight 6E 5601 from Delhi — made two low passes over the runway at 9 am to validate approach procedures before touching down at 10 am. It was then parked on the apron, where ground crews ran through the full sequence of turnaround operations: refuelling, baggage handling and passenger boarding bridge functions. The aircraft departed for Delhi at 11.45 am.

The trial tested the airport’s ability to turn around a commercial aircraft from landing to departure within a standard timeframe — a key benchmark regulators require before clearing any new airport for passenger operations.

Noida International Airport is expected to ease pressure on the congested Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi once commercial services commence. IndiGo will fly to 16 cities from the airport. Akasa Air has announced daily nonstop flights to Bengaluru and Navi Mumbai from June 16.

Tata-backed AI Group’s mounting losses have led its budget airline Air India Express, originally one of NIA’s three launch airlines, to indefinitely postponed its plans to have flights from the airport.