Hyderabad Airport was chosen for the landing of the world´s largest cargo aircraft AN 225 Myria.
GMR Hyderabad International Airport added a page to world aviation history reiterating its infrastructure prowess by welcoming the world´s largest cargo aircraft, the AN-225 Myria 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 metric tonnes of MTOW (Maximum Take Off Weight). It hurtled its landing gear in the wee hours of the night on 12th May at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad, parking at the airport´s Code-F (Airbus A380 Compatible) Cargo Apron.
Some vital statistics of the airplane are:
Fuel Capacity: 300,000 kg, Max Speed: 850 kmph, Max Range: 15,400 km (9,569 mi; 8,315 nmi), Cruising Altitude (Service ceiling): 11,000 m (36,089 ft) Length: 84 m (275 ft 7 in), Wingspan: 88.4 m (290 ft 0 in), Height: 18.1 m (59 ft 5 in).
Hyderabad Airport was chosen over other Indian airports for the halt of AN 225 Myria (´dream´ in Ukrainian), for the airport´s 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 24 hours halt at Hyderabad will proceed to Jakarta Indonesia and thereafter to its final destination Perth, Australia. There are only a few airports in world which can accept this kind of aircraft since the length and width of AN 225 through its wing span is wider than even the world´s largest passenger transport carrier, the Airbus A380 double-decker aircraft.
Talking about this proud moment, SGK Kishore, CEO, GHIAL said, ´We feel privileged to host the world´s biggest, longest, heaviest aircraft at Hyderabad Airport. 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 logistics hub.´
Further, Kishore said, ´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.´
RGIA, which has been in the top three ranks globally for seven consecutive years, has one of the largest modular integrated cargo facilities with a handling capacity of 150,000 MT annually, spread over 14,330 sq mt area. Hyderabad airport is an 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 has India´s first and only airport based Free Trade Zone – GIFTZ, (GMR International Free Trade Zone) & Aerospace Park. It has state-of-the-art facilities like Envirotainer base (Temperature-controlled Unit Loading Devises (ULDs)), AFS (Air Freight Station) and RFS (Road Feeder Service) network providing multimodal transport connectivity, coupled with all major regulatory agencies under one roof such as, Customs, Drug Controller, Animal & Plant Quarantine stations etc. With these world-class offerings RGIA is well on its way to achieve its vision of becoming the logistics hub for India and the South Asia region.
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