An incident just waiting to happen
They have displaced the threshold RWY 07 by 570 meters. They have taken the ILS DME off the air. They have switched off the approach lights. No PAPI or VASI. No temporary PAPI or VASI to tell you where the new threshold is.
You are left with a runway with lights on it, and a localizer. Absolutely nothing to help you judge your height or distance from the runway.
Combine this with the Indian meteorologist’s total inability to give you a correct visibility or RVR. They ALWAYS give you a value far below the actual. By doing so, they are in effect forcing us to do a LOC approach for 07 (need 2800 meters), when if fact the visibility is good enough for VOR 25 (need 4000 meters). 25 have PAPI, which makes a world of difference.
The 07 approach is bad enough in daylight, not to mention during night. Did they do the approach in darkness?
Last time I was in Chennai, I saw 2 Indian aircraft aiming for the normal threshold and doing a last minute save by suddenly holding it off a few feet above the RWY until just inside the displaced threshold. I could almost see the WTF bubble hovering over the cockpit, and this is their home turf.
Who's next? Still more than a month to go before MAA resume normal ops. Fixing a taxiway is a complicated task. In India.
I really hope the Saudia crew get a fair treatment. Good luck, guys!
The rest, beware!