GMR Hyderabad International Airport recorded a first for any Indian airport on 12 May by welcoming the world’s largest cargo aircraft, the AN-225 Myria (‘dream’ in Ukrainian) owned by Antonov Airlines of Ukraine on its Code F compliant runway.
The flying behemoth holds almost 240 world records under its belt, powered by six super charged turbo-fan engines, operated by a six-man crew, lifting a mammoth 640 tonnes of MTOW (Maximum Take Off Weight).
Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport was chosen over other Indian Airports for its technical expertise based on several factors such as runway length, ground manoeuvring area, technical facilities, air traffic density and proximity to the trans-continental air route.
The aircraft arrived from Turkmenbashi in Central Asia and after a 24 hour stop at Hyderabad proceeded to Jakarta, Indonesia and thereafter to its final destination Perth, Australia. There are a limited number of airports in the world which can accept this kind of aircraft due to the length and width of AN 225 with its wing span being wider than the A380.
“We feel privileged to host the world’s biggest, longest, heaviest aircraft at Hyderabad Airport,” said SGK Kishore, CEO, GHIAL. “The landing of AN 225 Myria is the testimony to our robust infrastructure, technical expertise and operational efficiency. That of all airports in India, Hyderabad Airport was chosen as the technical stopover for the aircraft of this size and volume reiterates our competence as a world class airport operator and a logistic hub.
“Hyderabad Airport is the only Greenfield airport in South India to have a functional standby runway for 24×7 flight operations. This helps in operating air services even during the maintenance of the main runway. Our infrastructure strength is also exhibited in the fact that we handled nine A380 aircraft movements which chose our airport for unscheduled landings and other services requirements. That’s the kind of reliability we offer to our esteemed airlines,” Kishore added.
RGIA has one of the largest modular integrated cargo facility with a handling capacity of 150,000 tonnes annually, spread over 14,330 sqms. Hyderabad airport is all-weather, modern airport with Code-F (A380 compatible) runway and apron. It houses India’s first Pharma Zone that offers temperature-controlled Truck-Dock to airside environment.
RGIA also features India’s first and only airport based Free Trade Zone – GIFTZ, (GMR International Free Trade Zone) & Aerospace Park. With state-of-the-art facilities like Envirotainer base, AFS (Air Freight Station) and RFS (Road Feeder Service) network providing multi-modal transport connectivity, coupled with all major regulatory agencies under one roof such as, Customs, Drug Controller, Animal & Plant Quarantine stations etc.
