TIA faces traffic congestion for second consecutive day
KATHMANDU:
Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), the country’s only international airport, faced traffic congestion
for the second consecutive day today. Hence, while many flights had to wait for clearance to land, some were even diverted to Lucknow, India.
The congestion created by foggy weather in the morning and inadequate parking facility for aircraft caused the number of flights in the afternoon to increase and kept the TIA management team busy the whole day.
This resulted in inconvenience for both travellers onboard and individuals reaching the airport to receive guests, as they had to wait for long hours due to the delay of the flights.
According to the International Flight Management Section of TIA, today’s situation was not as hectic as that of Monday.
“Flight movements were better compared to yesterday,” said an official of the section.
The official added that despite the improved situation, three flights — one each of Qatar Airways, Fly Dubai and Air Arabia — had to be diverted to Lucknow and many other flights had to wait for their turn to touch down at the TIA due to congestion.
Even domestic flights faced problems because of the congestion and low visibility in the morning, according to the TIA officials.
The TIA’s international parking bay accommodates nine aircraft and domestic parking area has space for 18 aircraft. But, since this is also the tourist season, TIA has been handling around 300 flights per day, including 40 international flights.
In a bid to reduce the congestion, TIA has also directed airline companies to take off from TIA within 45 minutes to one hour after landing.
“If the weather is clear, we do not face this type of problem,” said Birendra Prasad Shrestha, acting general manager of TIA.
He said that as there was no alternative to TIA, they have had to face the problem of congestion time and again.
TIA’s limited parking space for long has been a major problem for operators as they have a hard time finding a vacant space. This problem has been forcing aircraft to spend more time in the sky prior to landing. TIA officials said that even as TIA’s domestic parking bay is built for 18 aircraft, the parking area is over-crowded most of the time.
The government is also working on a project to improve TIA under the assistance of Asian Development Bank.
Although this will not help increase the parking facility due to lack of space, it would make it possible to operate flights 24 hours a day and add 300 metres to the existing 3,048-metre long single runway.
“Once we complete the improvement project, it will make operating flights 24 hours a day possible, which will help reduce congestion,” Shrestha said.
Currently, TIA remains open from 6:30am to 12:30am.
Amid growing number of international and domestic aircraft, TIA is likely to continue facing congestion problems until the government starts the service from two regional international airports in Pokhara and Bhairahawa and build a Second International Airport (SIA) in Nijgadh, Bara.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) officials have said that the planned airports in Pokhara and Bhairahawa will have capacity to handle international flights diverted from TIA.
It will take three years to complete the improvement of existing Gautam Buddha Airport to a regional international airport, according to CAAN.
Similarly, it will take minimum three years to complete the construction and start service from proposed regional international airport of Pokhara.
As for the Second International Airport, the government is yet to decide on the project financing model and begin construction.
Source: THT
