Pilots declare Patna airport a no-fly zone

Though the runway is 6,900 feet long, the effective length available is only 5,500 feet owing to the tall trees on one side and high tension electric wires on the other, resulting in the threshold (landing spot) being displaced, the ICPA said in a statement here today.

With a full load of 145 passengers in an A-320, pilots have been left with no margin making it necessary for them to ‘‘duck under’’ (a landing technique used) to do a spot landing, the ICPA said.

It said some of the pilots on their own have been operating to Patna under protest as ‘‘it is the pilot’s licence which is at stake every time he goes in and out of Patna airport’’. ICPA also pointed out the difficulties in operations during summer when day temperatures shoot up.

‘‘The weight penalties are so high that it becomes impossible to take more than 100 passengers in a 145-seater aircraft, thus causing a heavy loss of revenue,’’ it said.

Most of the times flights out of Patna get delayed, leading to consequential delays, and one has to wait for temperatures to come down to accommodate passengers and take off, it added.