page_title: Chennai International Airport
section_title: Runways
hierarchical_section_title: Chennai International Airport / Facilities / Runways
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Flughafen Chennai - Blick vom St. Thomas Mount
context_page_description: Chennai International Airport is an international airport serving the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, and its metropolitan area. It is located in Tirusulam, 21 km from the city centre. Chennai International Airport is the third busiest in international traffic and cargo capacity in the country behind New Delhi and Mumbai. It is the fourth busiest airport in country's overall passenger traffic behind New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. It is also 49th busiest airport in Asia making it one of the four major airports in India under the top 50 list. The airport is served by the airport metro station of the Chennai Metro and the Tirusulam railway station of the Chennai Suburban Railway system. To cope with the passenger traffic, two new terminals, namely T2 and one satellite terminal, are under construction to handle 40 million passengers per year. Once completed, it will be India's first airport to have a satellite terminal. The new satellite terminal will be connected through a four way underground walkalator for passenger movement across different terminals.
context_section_description: Chennai airport has two runways—the 3,662 m (12,014 ft) long primary runway No 07/25 (North-east - South-west orientation) and the 2,925 m (9,596 ft) long secondary runway No 12/30 (North-west - South-east orientation). Approach lights include CAT-1 category at runway 07 and CAT-1 type at runway 25 for 510 m. Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI)-type landing aids are available in all the runways. Routine maintenance work of the primary runway is carried out twice a week—between 2.30 pm and 4.30 pm on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
  Chennai airport does not have rapid exit taxiways that help pilots to vacate a runway without slowing down the aircraft soon after landing. Planes such as the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-8 will have to slow down completely to negotiate sharp turns on the taxiway. In 2011, AAI began work on upgrading the existing taxiways and parking bays at the airport to handle these jumbo planes.
  The secondary runway, which was initially 2,035 m long, was closed in 2009 to extend it over the Adyar river by means of a bridge over the watercourse at a cost of ₹ 4,300 million. Initially, 126.59 acres of land for second runway was handed over to Airports Authority of India (AAI). In March 2011, by acquiring 136 acres of land from the state government, AAI completed extension of the 2,035 m secondary runway by 1,400 m, whose commissioning, initially planned to be by November 2011, has been delayed as the approach lighting system has not been installed. While the cost of extending the runway was projected to be about ₹ 2,400 million, that of the bridge is almost ₹ 2,300 million. A bridge has been constructed across the Adyar river to extend the secondary runway by a length of 1,400 m to a total length of 3,445 m, including 835 m on the northern side of the river. The bridge accommodates the runway and a taxiway, making Chennai airport the only international airport in India to have a runway across a river. In Mumbai, only an end of the runway is over Mithi river. When the Airports Authority of India (AAI) recommissions the secondary runway, Chennai airport will join the league of airports with a functional runway across a river.
  With a new airport under consideration, the project for a parallel runway has been put on hold and the total land required for the airport expansion reduced from 1,069.99 acres to 800 acres. AAI planned to operate 2,400 m even after removing obstructions. About 2,085 m of the runway was earlier used for landing only smaller aircraft, like ATR types. In February 2012, airport authorities announced that only about 2,160 m of the secondary runway would be operational as there will be 330 m permanent displacement at GST road side and 780 m displacement at the other end. This restricted length would be enough to operate Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft without load penalty. Bad planning by the airport authorities, which has resulted in the removal of the very-high-frequency omni range equipment (VOR) from its original location where a link way has been constructed between the main and the secondary runways, has been considered the reason behind the delay.
  The present runway occupancy time at the airport (the time an aircraft spends on the runway) is around 70 seconds. By October 2018, the runway occupancy time will be reduced to 60 seconds, with the completion of the ongoing runway development works.
  In 2018, the airport acquired 151 acres for expansion works from neighbouring areas including Kolappakkam, Manappakkam, St. Thomas Mount and Gowl Bazaar. Expansion works includes installation of simple approach lighting systems for secondary runway, construction of hangars and parallel taxi track for the airport, fuel farm, installation of CAT 1 approach lighting system for the main runway, and a wide-aperture localiser antenna.
caption: Runway 07/25 as seen from Saint Thomas Mount
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