TIA? CAAN fail to start 24-hour service

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA) are clueless regarding the round-the-clock operation of the country’s only international airport.

Both CAAN and TIA have their own reasons behind the suspension of the plan to start round-the-clock operation. According to Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, it had to postpone the 24-hour operation due to extension work of the runway during night shift, whereas Tribhuwan International Airport said that it is not ready to start the service unless there is some operational cost benefit.

“Earlier, we wanted to start the service in October but since no airline was interested, we had to shelve the plan and therefore started extending the runway at night,” said director general of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal Tri Ratna Manandhar.

However, he also added that after the plan was suspended, there were some airlines that showed an interest but the response of the private airlines was quite late to grant the permission.

Under an Asian Development Bank (ADB) project, Tribhuwan International Airport is extending its runway and fixing the central line light for night operations.

Meanwhile, general manager of TIA Ratish Chandra Lal Suman said that due to lack of cost benefit, TIA had

to postpone the 24-hour operation plan.

Currently, TIA is operated for three shifts in the day and it was planning to start a fourth shift for those airlines who want to shift their peak hour flights to the fourth shift.

“The plan to start 24-hour operation of TIA was mainly to reduce airport congestion during the day, but none of the airlines were interested in shifting their day flights to night,” he said.

According to Suman, rather than shifting the time of the flights, the airlines were interested in additional flights in the extended hour, which was not possible.

“Our main target is to reduce airport congestion during the day shift and not additional flights in the fourth shift, which will not be cost effective for us,” said Suman. “The new plan should be beneficial for both airline companies and TIA,” he added.

TIA had issued an internal notice to inform about the postponement of its round-the-clock operation plan. CAAN, with an aim to minimise airport congestion, had planned for 24-hour operations from October 20.

However, with no interested international airline, it later postponed the plan until the next provision.

According to TIA, Air Arabia was the only international airline that approached TIA, after the deadline, but it was not cost effective for TIA. Meanwhile, Airlines Operators’ Committee has said that there were three airlines — Qatar Airways, Air Arabia and Etihad — that had approached Tribhuwan International Airport for a night shift.

source:The Himalayan Times,25 Dec 2012