| Kanpur Airport कानपुर हवाई अड्डा کان پور ہوائی اڈا Chakeri Airport |
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| Sattellite view of Kanpur Airport | |||
| IATA: KNU – ICAO: VICX
KNU
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| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Partially Public | ||
| Owner | Indian Air Force | ||
| Operator | Airports Authority of India | ||
| Serves | Kanpur, Unnao, Etawah, Kanpur Dehat, Hamirpur & Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh | ||
| Location | Kanpur, INDIA | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 410 ft / 124 m | ||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| ft | m | ||
| 09/27 (common use) | 9,000 | 2,743 | Concrete/Asphalt |
| 01/19 (not for civil use) | 4,105 | 1,251 | Concrete/Asphalt |
Kanpur Airport (IATA: KNU, ICAO: VIKA) (Hindi: कानपुर हवाई अड्डा, Urdu: کان پور ہوائی اڈا) is an airport that was originally designated for the Indian Air Force. In the 1970s, flights operated from this airport regularly to Delhi, Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Kolkata, Banglore, Chennai, Pune and Mumbai. For a long time, passengers of Kanpur, Unnao and Fatehpur have had to travel about 80 kilometers (50 mi) northwards to Amausi Airport in Lucknow, a 2–3 hours drive, for taking a flight to New Delhi, Mumbai or overseas. The Civil Air Terminal of Kanpur Airport was re-opened in December 2004 and since then regular flights are operational on this airport.
Contents |
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Air India Regional | Delhi, Kolkata |
Kanpur has the distinction of having 3 airstrips located respectively at the Chakeri Airport (having 9,000 ft (2,700 m) runway), Civil Airport located at Kanpur Cantt., and the IIT Airstrip located at IIT Kanpur.
On Wednesday 20th July 2011,The AI flight 9801 was headed from Delhi to Kolkata via Kanpur had 59 passengers on board. The plane, after it touched ground, did not stop within the safe distance and overshot into the slush at the end of the runway.As per reports, the plane, a 70 Seater CRJ-700, had a rough landing even though the weather was clear, with a visibility of 2000 meters.
Author Chetan Bhagat, who was on the flight, tweeted, "Emergency landing as plane skidded off runway into wet mud. Lucky save. Evacuations on now." Mr Bhagat also said, "The plane wheels are barely visible, dug deep into mud. Everyone's out now. Rattled but safe."
The Kanpur airport is in need of an advanced category II type Instrument Landing System (ILS) for receiving flights when dense fog envelops the runway. Though category I type ILS has been operational at the airport ever since it was commissioned but it failed to be of much help during the first three days of the ongoing week as Delhi-Kanpur flight could not land at the runway. The flight thus remained grounded. The reason attributed by the Air India authorities for the cancellation of the flight was poor visibility. It is under such circumstances, the ILS of an advanced type proves to be of a great help. Such ILS types enable the pilots to have better visibility to make the aircrafts land even when the dense fog has descended upon the runway. But with category I type ILS in place at the Kanpur airport, the maximum visibility that it can provide to the pilot for landing an aircraft is 1200-metre, beyond which an advanced ILS type is required. As during the first three days of the week, nothing was visible beyond 500-metre, the flight remained cancelled. Thus, a category II type ILS is an urgent need at Kanpur airport for the Delhi-Kanpur flight to land as this category of ILS is capable of providing better visibility. Thus, the passengers who had to go to Delhi were made to board Delhi bound flight from Amausi airport in Lucknow which has a category II type ILS (advanced ILS type) in place. This had indeed left the passengers in trouble who had to take a longer route to reach their destination. This happened for three consecutive days and many of the passengers cancelled their tickets and took the refund from Air India which flies a Delhi-Kanpur flight on Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday and Delhi-Kanpur-Kolkata flight on Monday-Wednesday-Friday. [1]
Now, in 2012, the construction of a new air terminal next to the existing building is expected to begin. This will enable more number of flights to land and take-off. It is also expected that Kanpur will get air connectivity with cities like Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Bengaluru. At a time when the Delhi-Kanpur-Kolkata flight was launched Civil Aviation Minister, Vyalar Ravi had promised that the industrial city would be connected with other metro cities. [2]
At a time when Kanpur is to be given air connectivity with several other destinations, the facility of night landing is also badly required. Also, the Chakeri airport is in need of an advanced category II type Instrument Landing System (ILS) for receiving flights when dense fog envelops the runway. Though category I type ILS has been operational at the airport ever since it was commissioned, but it failed to be of much help. On several occasions and even in December when dense fog had enveloped the runway at Chakeri airport, the Delhi-Kanpur flight could not land. Thus, it either remained grounded or else it was routed through Lucknow Airport. [3]
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