In a bid to make things easy for President Pratibha Patils Sukhoi sortie,a number of civilian flights at the Lohegaon International Airport were rescheduled in the morning. While many flights could take off later than usual,some others left earlier. The Air Force authorities had not just cordoned off the roads leading to the air base,but had also intimated the civil airport authorities to keep air traffic off during the time slot. Much before the visit,the Air Force had informed us about the event. They had requested us to intimate all the airlines not to fly any aircraft during the time slot,in which the Sukhoi flight was scheduled to take off, Airport director Capt Deepak Shastri said. All the airlines took note of the closure for this short period. While no other airlines formally informed us about the rescheduling of flights,only SpiceJet intimated us about their changed flight timings, he said. Since it was not mandatory for airlines to inform us about the rescheduling,they must have contacted the passengers directly. So,none of the passengers were inconvenienced much. Jet Airways scheduled its flight earlier than the regular time. Instead of 11.10 am,the Mumbai flight was scheduled at 10.20 am. SpiceJets SG 212 Pune-Delhi flight,which leaves Pune at 11.35,left at 12.25 pm. Indigo rescheduled its 11.50 Delhi flight to 1 pm. Though the President entered the air base and got into the aircraft from the Air Force entry station,we had nevertheless kept all the security arrangements in place at the civil base. We had roped in police personnel,besides our own CISF force, Shastri said.
