CM airport honour

Instrument Landing System (ILS) is a standard International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) precision landing aid 

TT, Siliguri: For the first time in the history, the Bagdogra airport on Friday crossed the two-million mark in terms of the number of passengers who have moved through the airport in a fiscal.

For Bagdogra, the two-millionth passenger was chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who headed for Calcutta from here, after finishing her trip to some of the north Bengal districts.

Rakesh Sahay, the airport director, handed over a memento to the chief minister, recognising her as the "two millionth passenger at Bagdogra airport for FY2017-18" on behalf of the Airport Authority of India (AAI).

"It is indeed a great day for us. The airport has finally crossed the two-million mark in the current financial year. If the current trend continues, we expect the final figures (till March 31), will be over 21 lakhs or so. Also, it was nice to have the chief minister as the two-millionth passenger," said Sahay.

He also had a brief talk with Mamata during which he informed her about the Instrumental Landing System (ILS), to be commissioned from March 29.

"We thanked her for the state's support in installing ILS at the airport. She also observed that once the system starts functioning, the number of flights would go up in Bagdogra," said Sahay.