Pune Airport News: Pune airport will remain closed for fourteen days. (Representative)
Pune:
The Pune airport will remain closed for fourteen days from October 16 to October 29 to complete the runway repair work.
Pune airport director Santosh Dhoke told ANI, “Flight operations will be completely closed from tomorrow till October 29 and it will resume from October 30.”
The Indian Air Force (IAF), which manages runway operations, stated that due to the rapidly deteriorating condition of the runway and the associated operating surface at Air Force Station, Pune, resurfacing of the runway was necessitated.
The runway was partially closed for 12 hours at night time from 26 October 2020 to 25 October 2021 with the aim of causing minimum disruption to civil aviation.
“A complete shutdown of 14 days was planned from April 26 to May 9, 2021 for the resurfacing of the central bitumen portion of the runway. However, due to the emergent need for transportation of COVID-19 vaccines, the Defense Ministry had directed the runway to shut down completely,” the IAF statement said.
It said there were plans to close the airport for the third and fourth weeks of October.
“The exact dates of closure from October 16 to October 29, 2021 can be announced only after obtaining necessary approvals from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of Defence. As per the present plan, flight operations will resume from October 30.” 2021, ahead of the Diwali festival,” the statement said.
It said that during the period of complete closure of the runway, IAF will ensure airlift of vaccines from Pune to Mumbai by deploying suitable assets to ensure uninterrupted supply chain.
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