Wait ends as KIA to get second runway boost in 3 days

Eleven years and six months after its commercial launch, the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) is all set to get its first major upgrade on December 5 – a second runway, with the promise of a dramatic jump in flight operations and a partial relief from fog-related disruptions.

Since the existing runway is equipped only with a Category-I (CAT-I) Instrument Landing System (ILS), poor visibility during winter disrupts hundreds of flights every year. However, the new south parallel runway is likely to address this issue only sometime by late February 2020.

Airport sources explained that the new runway had to be stabilised progressively, first with CAT-I ILS, then with CAT-II and eventually with its full capability of CAT-IIIB.