UMESH KUMAR PANTHI

Tribhuvan International Airport is currently operating for 21 hours a day.

Its operational capacity can be expanded by another three hours. This
means TIA, theoretically speaking, still has to offer 12.5 per cent more
capacity

Illustration: Ratna Sagar Shrestha

As we are debating the need of a full-fledged Second International Airport (SIA)

vis-à-vis its location, modality of construction, and environmental impacts of the
construction among others in Nijgadh of Bara, we must not forget we have already
spent over two and a half decades doing nothing but talking.
In the meantime we have come with Gautam Buddha Regional International
Airport (GBIA) and Pokhara Regional International Airport (PRIA). Construction
of these two projects is under way. We do not know when the construction of SIA
will start. Around 60 per cent of hardware works of GBIA has been completed, and
it is expected to be completed by June next year. But much of software or
operational readiness works—airspace negotiation, airspace design, procedures
design, manpower planning and testing and training of designed procedures
among others—is still pending. PRIA construction started in April 2016. It is
expected to be completed at best by the end of April 2021. Lately, a debate arose
on “PRIA Infrastructure Investment Justification” after an expert committee
formed by the concerned ministry gave its “expert opinion” to the minister of civil
aviation. This debate is likely to surface again in near future

Be that as it may, the reality is Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) is the only
international airport in the country today. It is currently operating 21 hours a day.
Its operational capacity can be expanded by another three hours to make it a
round-the-clock airport. This means TIA, theoretically speaking, still has to offer
12.5 per cent more capacity. However, the fact is the recently extended time of 2.5
hours is not actually being fully utilized yet in practical terms. Furthermore, when
the Runway and Taxiways at TIA are improved with the end-to-end parallel
taxiways and with easy (if not rapid) exit taxiways, it can save up to 160 minutes.

Suppose, at present 40 international flights—80 international movements—are

being operated, each consuming additional two minutes of runway occupancy
time, while in lining-up for departure and or after landing runway vacation
process, we can add at least 12.5 per cent more capacity, resulting in 25 per cent
more capacity on the ground side (combined by time extension and taxiway
extension/modification alone). Thus, there would be a significant capacity surplus
to ease the present congestion. Similarly, by redesigning the Standard Instrument
Departure Routes (SIDs) and Standard Arrival Routes (STARs), we can increase
the air capacity significantly. For example, instead of SIDs those have the
compulsion for aircraft to make one orbit of Kathmandu valley; they can fly by just
making an arc departure—which saves at least 1.5 minutes per SID departure.

Although it may not be suitable for all types of aircraft, it will be just appropriate
for certain types and size of aircraft. In this manner, we can save a lot of extra
operational time at our disposal. For example, there are roughly 30 SIDs, making
orbits in international, and 15 domestic SIDs plus, say, five overhead checking
mountain flights per day, totalling 50. If we save 1.5 minutes, we will save 75
(1.5×50) minutes per day on SIDs only. Likewise we have nine international
parking stands. If each aircraft consumes, say, 1.5 hours of ground time, we can
handle 126 (21×9/1.5) international flights in terms of parking bay in 21 hours of
operation. But we have to properly slot the aircraft schedules. Furthermore, if we
add two more bays and run airport for 24 hours, we can accommodate 176
(24×11/1.5) international flights per day which would be enough to bring more
than double of the tourists than what we have today.

Looking at this, of course one will be surprised at the current bay congestion when
we have only around 50 international flights per day. This results in aircraft
holding in the air. A dirty little secret is at least four to five medium or heavy
aircraft occupy the bay for 24 hours continuously because they don’t have any
operation or simply because of some technical reasons (refer to Himalaya and
Nepal Airlines idle aircraft parked at TIA). Furthermore sometimes traffic is
delayed because of operational restriction as TIA has no standard separation of
“runway and taxiway for heavy category aircraft” for simultaneous operation in
taxiway and runway.

The air holds by aircraft severely reduce the air capacity and create a situation of
air congestion. For example, if there is the capacity to hold 10 aircraft within
Kathmandu terminal control area and suppose one aircraft is holding there now,
in fact, it is occupying 10 per cent of available air capacity. It is always true that
congestion in ground creates congestion on air and vice-versa.

Looking at these calculations, both air and ground capacity at TIA are not
saturated and can be easily increased by more than 30 per cent. Besides
unavailability of many other facilities, TIA is operating for airlines with load
restrictions. It is because of narrow steep terrain (aircraft performance).
Possibilities of an extended hour of air or ground hold, traffic condition in the air,
bay congestion on the ground and weather changes are also severely affecting
airlines’ optimum payload capacity.

Currently, TIA is not only an international airport, it is also a major national

infrastructure and the backbone of national economy.

Panthi is president of Nepal Air Traffic Controllers Association