Juhu airport to the rescue again,this time with parking bays for small aircraft

There is an urgent need to increase parking bays at Juhu airport with the AAI planning to shift some small aircraft operations here from January 10. “We will be able to accomodate around eight turbo prop engine aircraft comfortably,however,there is a lot of pent up demand for parking space with the aircraft acquisition committee which we will partially cater to at Juhu,” said an official.

The AAI also decided to make night landing facility available for helicopter operators — but according to AAI this will only be available in cases of emergency and low-visibility operations. The AAI is also proposing a 24-hour watch tower as the one used now is operational only from 6 am to 6 pm.

As Juhu is only a Visual Flight Rules (VFR) airport and not an Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) airport ( where aircraft take off and land with instrument aid) it cannot have continous night operations.

With the current upgradation,the airport is getting itself a Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI),a landing aid for aircraft. It will also be installing runway lights for use at night. But it has a number of obstacles within the range of the airport,which makes it difficult for it to be an IFR airport.

Night operations have been a demand of helicopter operators. Among the long term plans for the airport include the correction of the alignment of runway 08-26 to 09-27 at CSIA,which would then become parallel to the main runway of CSIA. This will make independent operations possible. It is also constructing a new terminal building.

The master plan for Juhu airport,which AAI approved on October 21,also talks about extending the runway into the sea,so that it is able to accomodate larger aircraft which require a longer runway.