Kolkata airport ready to host world's largest twin-engine jet
1
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Kolkata: The city airport is ready for the
Boeing B-777X
, the largest
twin-engine jet
in the world. An official from the Seattle-headquartered aircraft manufacturer, who flew into the airport earlier this week to carry out inspections and seek clarifications, returned satisfied.
When airlines use the aircraft sometime in the latter half of next year, they will have no problem flying into Kolkata.
The airport authorities said an engineer representing Boeing Co conducted a survey to check the readiness of the airport. The B-777X aircraft is not only the longest twin-jet aircraft in the world, but its wingspan is 71.8 m. To fit into regular airport gates, the aircraft has a wingtip folding mechanism that reduces the wingspan to 64.9 m.
Among other things, the engineer from Boeing came to check if the airport had a provision to park the aircraft in case the wingtip retractable mechanism failed to function. "The 777X, with its larger wingspan, requires airports to ensure sufficient clearance for wingtip movement. Once the wings retract, the aircraft can be serviced in the contact parking bay 61 that has an aerobridge. But in case the wingtip retraction mechanism develops a snag, we have taxiway H1 where the aircraft can be parked for passengers to alight and board," the official said.
by Taboola
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The B-777X aircraft requires airports to meet specific infrastructure standards, particularly in terms of runway length, taxiway width, and clearances. The B-777X has a maximum design taxi weight of 352,441 kg and requires runways of at least 2,500 m for take-off. The minimum taxiway width required is 23 m.
Kolkata airport
has ticked all the boxes.
Deliveries of the latest generation B-777X will begin to Emirates, Qatar, and Etihad.
While all the airlines operate to Kolkata, sources said if an airline were to fly it into Kolkata, it would be Emirates, which has 12 flights a week.
At present, the
largest passenger aircraft
serviced by Kolkata airport is the B-777 ER, operated by Emirates. Though there is a larger passenger aircraft in the double-decker Airbus A-380, airlines do not operate it to Kolkata. However, the A-380 did land in Kolkata during a trial check. Among the other mega planes that have touched down here are the Beluga, a specially designed mega-size transport aircraft by Boeing's rival Airbus Industrie, and the military aircraft C-17 Globemaster III.
"Kolkata airport's primary runway at 3,633 m is capable of handling the largest planes in the world. The taxiways are also designed in a manner that will allow these planes with large wingspans to taxi without brushing against another aircraft. There are twin-arm aerobridges for faster boarding and alighting of passengers," explained an airport official.
The B-777X, with a capacity of 426 passengers, has a range of 13,492 km and is more fuel-efficient than previous Boeing 777 models.
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