E-Paper
Night landing, take-off operations begin at Shirdi Airport
Indigo A-321 carrying 232 passengers from Delhi landed at the ‘Saibaba International Airport Shirdi’ at around 8.15 pm on Saturday, April 8
An Indigo flight from Delhi landed at Shirdi airport Saturday night and departed for Delhi 45 minutes later, marking the airport’s first night- landing and take-off operations.
Indigo A-321 carrying 232 passengers from Delhi landed at the ‘Saibaba International Airport Shirdi’ at around 8.15 pm on Saturday, April 8. The same flight departed for Delhi at about 9 pm the same day, carrying 232 passengers from Shirdi.
Deepak Kapoor, managing director and vice-chairman (VC), Maharashtra Airport Development Company Ltd. (MADCL), said, “The first night landing of the flight and then take-off for Delhi from Shirdi Airport was carried out successfully on Saturday. This is an important milestone for us and we are now certainly looking to increase flight operations and connect a few more destinations from Shirdi. We are also exploring if international destinations can be connected to Shirdi as devotees come here from all across the globe.”
Earlier in February this year, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had approved the night landing facility at Shirdi Airport. Last year, a team of DGCA officials visited Shirdi Airport to review preparations for night landing facilities and security arrangements after which it submitted a report to the head office and finally, on February 16, 2023, official permission for night landing operations was given by the DGCA.
Devotees who regularly travel to and from Shirdi are delighted at the development. Ruchi Pant from Delhi said, “I am a big devotee of Saibaba and whenever I come to my relative’s place in Maharashtra, I always go to Shirdi for darshan. Earlier, we had to first come to Mumbai or Pune and then go by road all the way to Shirdi but now, we can take a direct night flight to the temple town and take early morning darshan.”
Shirdi is an important place of pilgrimage with devotees coming here from all over the country and world. Currently, there are 13 flights operational from Shirdi Airport to various domestic destinations including Hyderabad, Delhi, Tirupati, Bengaluru, Visakhapatnam, Indore and Chennai. In the past, the runway of the airport was expanded to 3,200 metres from the earlier 2,500 metres. Whereas, the MADCL has also started the work of a new apron, considering the increase in passengers travelling to and from the airport. The airport apron area is where the aircraft are parked, unloaded or loaded, refuelled, boarded or maintained.
