No impact on flight operations at Chennai airport during Indo-China summit

The Chennai airport authorities on Saturday said steps had been taken to ensure that flight operations here were not affected due to the VVIP movement during the two-day informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The clarification comes amid reports in a section of media that flight services were hit following the high profile visits. "We had taken steps to ensure there was no impact on flight operations. Grade E (bigger cargo aircraft) planes required to use the main runway," Director, Chennai Airport, S Sreekumar told PTI.

Asked whether the secondary runway was used, he replied in affirmative. "We have also used secondary runway (to ensure flight operations at airport were not affected)," he said.

A galaxy of leaders include Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Chief Minister K Palaniswami, Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal along with other Minister and government officials have been visiting the airport following the visit of Modi and Jinping to the State.

Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in a tweet, "I have seen media reports suggesting that there has been an impact on flights in Chennai due to VVIP movement. All operations on schedule. The action was initiated to use secondary runway on a need basis. This will ensure that there is no delay inflight operations even during night."