7 January 2020, Kathmandu
Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), the country’s only international airport is gradually expanding its capacity to handle 90,000 passengers daily. TIA currently handles 20,000 passengers daily.
TIA will handle such number once it starts operating in full capacity in every manner. The airport is becoming congested with the growing bumber of air passengers in recent years. The number of passengers, including domestic and international, using the airport has reached 7.2 million annually.
Around 500 airplanes towards domestic and international routes operate on a daily basis. Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) shared that the number of passengers using TIA increased two folds in 2018 compared to the number of passengers in 2009. This indicates that the number of passengers is going to increase in the coming days.
According to the CAAN director general, Rajan Pokharel “the number of passengers has been steadily going up over the last 10 years and the airport has become congested. It is estimated the number of passengers will be 9 million per annum by 2021.”
Pokhrel further added that an alternative international airport is urgently needed considering the increasing number of air passengers. He said CAAN was also working vigorously for the smooth management of additional airlines as well as the increasing number of passengers.
Similarly, as per TIA general manager Devendra KC the capacity of the airport is being gradually expanded. He said works related to renovation of the runway and taxiway have been completed and the process for calling for bid for the construction of parallel taxiway has been forwarded now.
GM KC also shared that the airport management is constantly working on runway improvement as well as on expansion of aircraft parking area and passenger halls. This is the first time in the aviation history of the country that the international airport’s runway and taxiway have been renovated.
Likewise, CAAN is constructing two parking ways at the airport at a cost of Rs 1.6 billion from the Airport Development Fund. It believes that operation of the remote parking way would help ease the aircraft traffic. The remote parking way towards the north-east of the airport has already been operational since last May.
This parking way can accommodate two wide-body and three narrow-body aircraft. The international terminal has the parking capacity for only nine aircraft. The number of international parking way at TIA has reached 11 with the coming into operation of the one towards the north-east of the airport.
A call for bid has been made for the construction of the parking area which is estimated to cost Rs 8 billion. Its construction would be completed in three years. Although the present parking capacity towards the domestic sector is 17 aircraft, as many as 35 are being parked.
Twenty-eight airlines including three Nepali airlines companies are operating flights towards the international sector and 20 airlines companies including 10 helicopter services are operating flights towards the domestic sector from the TIA at present.
