To ease air traffic congestion and cut down flight delays, Chennai airport has once again started simultaneous operations of the main and secondary runways. After almost six years, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has resumed the practice. This will increase the airport’s flight handling capacity to 55 aircraft per hour. At present, while the airport has a capacity to handle 36 aircraft an hour, the number operated per hour is 32-33, officials said. When the runways are operated simultaneously, when there is a departure or arrival at the Guindy end of the main runway (Runway 25), a departure can be carried out on runway 30 of the secondary runway. It will be particularly helpful during the early morning congestion, which happens due to multiple departing flights, another official said. The simultaneous operation was planned to accommodate more departures, especially between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. During this period, the secondary runway can handle flights departing to destinations such as New Delhi, Mumbai, and Nagpur. In 2018, the airport had simultaneously operated both runways. It later discontinued this due to various reasons. The practice has been restarted after the secondary runway was re-carpeted. However, there are some limitations in carrying out simultaneous operations. For example, should the visibility come down or if the tailwind speed is over seven knots per hour, then we cannot perform simultaneous operations. While the airport has two runways, a main runway, which is 12,000 ft long, and a secondary runway, whose usable length is around 9,000 feet, only the former is predominantly used. This is because the entire length of the secondary runway is unusable owing to obstacles present on the approach path.