Vilasrao Deshmukh's demise: VVIP flow congests airports

Latur airport, which sees only 14 to 16 aircraft movements a month, recorded the highest air traffic movement on Wednesday.
With the continuous flow of VIPs and VVIPs to pay their last respect to former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, the day had eight aircraft movement in an hour.

Eighty VIP and VVIP aircraft movements were reported at the airport besides 30 other movements to nearby Nanded and Osmanabad airports in 10 hours. Airport sources said that Latur airport, about 12km away from the city, mostly does not see many of flight movements as no commercial aircraft operate from there. The infrastructure of the airport provides parking space for one ATR aircraft and one business jet, the sources said. The airport is operated by Reliance Airport Developers Private Limited.

The sources in the airport said all agencies including the Airport Operator, Airport Authority of India, Indian Air Force, SPG Team and District Administration coordinated to handle the unprecedented volume of aircraft at the small airstrip. “The favourable climate helped a lot as it did not interfere with the traffic movement,” added a senior airport official.

The officials said due to small apron size and limited parking space available for aircraft at Latur,  the traffic  load was shared by Nanded and Osmanabad airport for temporary parking, fueling and quick turnaround.