Air Deccan's maiden Surat flight washed out

Heavy rains and a grossly inadequate infrastructure at the airport washed out the inaugural Mumbai-Surat-Bhavnagar flight of Air Deccan on Sunday.

The flight, with G R Gopinath, managing director of Deccan Aviation on board, was scheduled to take off from Mumbai at 11 am on Sunday, but the flight was delayed and could take off only at around 12.15 pm. The plane, which reached Surat at 1.10 pm, could not land owing to heavy rains and poor visibility, and proceeded towards Bhavnagar.

The ordeal for the people of Surat did not end there. On its return leg, the flight took off from Bhavnagar at 2.15 pm and reached Surat 30 minutes later, but again could not make a landing and left for Mumbai.

John Kuruvilla, chief revenue officer and head commercial, Air Deccan, said, "The flight could not land at Surat Airport and went directly to Mumbai as the weather was not favourable. If weather permits our flights will operate as per schedule from Monday."

While this was the official version of why the flight could not land at Surat, a senior official of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), who was present at the airport, admitted that the infrastructure at the airport is not good enough for services.

The official said, "The runway does not appear to be strong enough for safe landing of planes. Its level is very low and needs to be raised by at least two-and-a half feet. It has been raining for a few hours and the runway is almost submerged under water so the first thing that needs to be done is to raise its height."

"We tried twice for landing at the Surat airport, but the cloud was so low and the instrument landing facility was not available at the airport. It was disappointing," Gopinath said.

"Though the main issue is the sub-standard runway, the airport also has other shortcomings. Fencing work of the airport has not been completed. Security measures that we had been assured of at the airport were nowhere in sight," said the AAI official.

"We have started work on the runway, which has been interrupted by the rains. The rainy season in Surat is likely to continue for two more months, so the work can be properly started only after this period. Once the work has been completed, the runway could handle smaller aircraft from November or December, but it would be at least March next year before the bigger planes can land or take off from here. The connectivity or frequency of flights cannot be increased either," said the official.

Raghavendra Rao, regional executive manager, AAI, who was also present at the airport, said, "We had given permission for only the inaugural flight, which unfortunately could not land. Though Air Deccan claims to have received necessary clearances from Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), we are yet to receive any official information about the same."

"Air Deccan will be allowed to operate from Monday, only if we get a confirmation that they have received the DGCA clearance," Rao said.

Surat airport has been handed over to AAI for the development. The state has signed a memorandum of understanding with AAI, which states that the airport authority will hand over the developed airport to the state by September next year.

According to the memorandum, the state will bear the cost of security, electricity and water supply among others. The airport needs widening of runways so that Boeing 737 and Airbus 320 can be operated from Surat Airport.

The airfare between Mumbai-Surat is Rs 1,600 and the airfare between Mumbai-Bhavnagar is Rs 1,800, which is the lowest available in the industry.

The foundation stone laying ceremony of the Surat airport was performed on September 30 last year. The leaders had then assured that work of the airport would start on a full-fledged basis immediately.

It's nine months since the foundation ceremony took place, but hardly any progress has been made. The condition at the airport is similar to what it was nine months back.