Surge in commercial, rescue flights take toll on TIA

KATHMANDU, April 30: Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA) is finding it difficult to manage surge in the number of commercial and rescue flights after a 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit the country on Saturday.

Flights frequency has increased drastically as rescue flights are coming from across the world and foreigners are returning to their country in droves

At present, an average of 90 commercial flights are taking off and landing at TIA while around 30 rescue flights are being operated on a daily basis. On normal days, TIA would see around 60 take offs and landings of international flights and around 300 domestic take off and landings. The airport operates from 6 am till 12:30 am on normal days.
Officials say TIA has been giving first priority to flights coming with rescue team and relief materials. "It is becoming very difficult us as frequency of flights has increased beyond our capacity. However, we are doing our level best to make sure that both rescue flights and commercial flights are operated easily," Tek Nath Sitaula, manager of TIA, told Republica.

Some commercial flights, however, were delayed and some were even diverted on Wednesday as the airport has been prioritizing flights bringing relief materials and rescue teams. Most of such flights were diverted to Kolkata, Lucknow and Dhaka.

TIA is operating round the clock since Saturday to manage flight congestion.

"It is normal for the flight frequency to increase during natural disasters. To manage the pressure, TIA has been operating for 24 hours since Saturday. It will continue till Friday so that people coming to Nepal to meet their friends and relatives and foreigners willing to return to their country do not face any problem. It has also made operation of rescue flights easier." Sitaula said. "We will reduce operation hours after Friday once pressure starts to subside."

TIA has only nine parking bays. As the parking bays are occupied, some flights have even been parked at taxiway.

"We are working very hard to clear the parking bays as early as possible so that flights will not have to be kept on hold for longer time," said Sitaula.

Many rescue flights have not been able to come to the country due to congestion in TIA. "Every day we get request for 18 to 25 rescue flights. We, however, have been able to permit only around 15 rescue flights in a day considering the capacity of TIA," an official at TIA, said requesting anonymity.

Rescue flights take around three to four hours to unload cargo and return back while commercial flights return in 1 to 1.5 hours.

Sitaula, however, said they were giving equal priority to both flights.

As the pressure at TIA has delayed most of the commercial flights, many passengers are finding it difficult to figure out their flight time. "I arrived at airport on time with much difficulty. But when I came here I came to know that the flight has been delayed by eight hours," Bimal Dhakal of Mulpani, who was flying to Dubai via FlyDubai, said. "Had we been informed on time, we won't have to rush."

Source: myRepublica