-KATHMANDU
The Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), sole international airport located at the Capital of the county has asked the entire domestic carrier mandatorily to park their aircraft at the designated airports effective from July.
Following the congestion of aircraft parking at the airport facility, the TIA authority dispatching a letter to the carriers has instructed to park the aircraft at other domestic airports with an aim to reduce overall traffic congestion problem at TIA.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), the sole aviation regulatory body has also assigned specific airports for parking, especially during night time while issuing the air operator’s certificate (AOC) for the airline. In spite of that; the domestic airline companies desire to park their aircraft at TIA during night time despite the limited airport facility.
Spokesperson for TIA stated that sometimes the crowded parking space and limited capacity results in chaos at TIA. Moreover, crowded parking space sometimes also affects regular take-off, landing and taxing of aircraft at the airport. If airline companies do not act in accordance with this instruction, the government could even cancel regular flights of a particular aircraft of the airline company, said an airport official.
The TIA presently features with parking bays with the capacity to handle 30 aircraft of domestic airline companies. Similarly, the international parking bay can accommodate only nine aircraft — three wide-body aircraft and six narrow-body aircraft.
In the meantime, the domestic airline companies have vowed that they will provide support to government by following the instruction parking a few aircraft at some domestic airports.
Addressing the air traffic congestion problem, the airport authority is preparing to bring into operation four new aircraft parking bays within a few months. Similarly, TIA also plans to construct smaller parking bays targeting smaller aircraft.
