Silchar, Sept. 10: Uncertainty looms over the Airbus 320 flights from Kumbhirgram airport here to Calcutta.

The Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association has raised objections to operation of the aircraft from the World War II airport, 25 km east of Silchar town, on the ground that this vintage aerodrome is not suitable for the operation of Airbus 320 fleet.

The association complained of inadequate infrastructure, including clean restrooms for the crew and alleged that Indian (airlines) authorities had introduced the Airbus operations four days a week without conducting the necessary landing tests.

The airport does not have state-of-the-art instrumental landing system (ILS) used to monitor weather conditions, visibility index and night landing facilities, they said.

The airport is the second largest and busiest airport in Assam, after Borjhar airport in Guwahati.

Flights are operated to Calcutta, Guwahati, Imphal and Agartala from the airport.

The showdown between the association and Indian came to the fore on the day of inauguration of the flight by the Union minister of state for heavy industries, Sontosh Mohan Dev.

Indian’s general manager (operations), Mehoobab Bhat, had to fly the Airbus 320 with only 100 passengers after the pilots refused to fly from the airport.

Following their adamant stand, the Indian authorities allowed the pilots to fly with a reduced passenger load to ensure safe landing.

A project aimed at extending the runway’s length to 7,500 feet from 5,857 feet is pending implementation.

The National Building Corporation of India, a public-sector undertaking which started executing the scheme in 2004 and set April 2007 as the deadline, has stretched it to early next year.

According to sources in the Airports Authority of India, the ILS equipment is expected to be installed early next year though the machine from Norway has already been brought to Calcutta at a cost of Rs 20 crore. A tower is being built to install the gadget. The night landing facility with its Alpha-R radiance will also take some more months to be installed.