Dhangadhi Airport, one of the country’s busiest domestic airports, is now facing the parking congestion problem. The airport acquires the second longest runway after TIA along with two parking bay which now has started the parking lingering problem at the airport premises. Currently, an aircraft at Dhangadhi Airport requires more than 30 minutes after landing to disembark the passengers and prepare for next flight.
According to the officials from the Airport, the daily scheduled flight operation by the various airlines at the airport from capital city has now increased which makes the airport infrastructure isolated along with lack of sufficient parking bay. A month before, the airport had handled only three flights traffic per day which now has doubled exceeding its flight to six per day which is compelling the airport to be congested to operate only couple of flight at a time.
As the report of the Dhangadhi Airport Capacity Enhancement Program, the airport had already acquired 8 Bighas 2 kattha of land towards the Southern part. Deputy Chief for Civil Aviation Authority of Dhangadhi Mr. Rajendra Singh said that this year the airport will also acquire the land located at the Eastern part covering till Khutiya road. The process to acquire the 16 Bighas of land is going with the co-ordination with District Administration Office Dhangadhi within this upcoming fiscal year which helps to expand the airport capacity.
As per the Airport Capacity Enhancement Program, estimated budget of Rs 40 million is required for the expansion of the parking bay. “After the expansion of the parking bay the airport can easily accommodate eight to night aircraft at a time,” source added.
Currently, National Flag Carrier Nepal Airlines and Saurya Airlines conducts one flight each per day while the Buddha Air and Shree Airlines operates two flights a day.
Dhangadhi airport will also be featuring VOR/DME station soon. With this progress, Dhangadhi Airport now will take a leap forward in providing better service to both the airliners and the passengers.
