Jaipur airport 1st in country to have automatic weather observing system, BA

The city airport has become the first in the country to commission an automatic weather observing system with runway visual range that provides real-time weather data of high accuracy, said officials on Friday.

Advanced infrastructure at Jaipur International Airport (JIA) enabled it to accommodate 2,952 non-scheduled aircraft movements this year, according to airport officials. These non-scheduled movements encompassed various scenarios, including diverted flights, chartered aircraft operations, and emergency landings, they said.

“Redesigning of the runway and setting up a new backup Air Operation Command Centre (AOCC) are the other initiatives that strengthened the runway operations at JIA. This upgrade of overall airside infrastructure enabled JIA to handle around 2,952 non-scheduled flight movements in 2024,” states a statement issued by the airport administration on Friday.

Due to the advanced facilities at JIA, including systems allowing landing in very low visibility, several flights were diverted to here in recent months. “We have been focusing on improving services to ensure greater convenience and satisfaction for travellers,” said a senior JIA official. Three Udaipur-bound flights, including one from Jaipur itself, were diverted to JIA due to poor weather conditions on Friday. The other two flights were from Delhi and Mumbai. As visibility dipped in Udaipur, the flights could not land. About 70 passengers on the Jaipur-Udaipur flight had to wait for about an hour and a half for landing, and the flight was diverted back to Jaipur when the weather did not clear.