Kathmandu, ANN
The only international airport of nation, Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) is going to face a busy and chaos situation from tomorrow which will result delays and changes in the schedules of maximum flights of two days i.e. Saturday and Sunday. On the account of VVIP arrival on Saturday and his departure on Sunday, the two days would be a difficult day for management of TIA. The president of People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping is going to make an official visit to Kathmandu for two days and the government is making rapid preparations for his visit. The main obstruction for the flights for two days will be the unavailability of parking bays.
TIA altogether has 9 parking bays for international terminal. 6 among which will be used by two Boeing 747 aircraft that will land in TIA for transportation of the President Jinping. The two aircraft would be parked parallel to terminal facing North and South direction. TIA will only have availability of 3 parking bays for 2 days hence it will effect a lot of international flights landing and departing from TIA. The carriers are supposed to alter their timing according to the NOTAM published. Altogether an average of 80 international flights are handled by TIA daily. The availability of only 3 parking bays will really show down the landing and departures of international traffic hence almost all the flights within TIA would be effected including the domestic flights.
The two Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet aircraft are going to be parked facing North and South direction while the regular traffic are being parked facing west towards the terminal. This is because of lack of towing vehicle for the heavier aircraft. TIA lack of ground equipment, the towing vehicle for aircraft with more than 250 tons of weight has cause this problem. The flight operation halt and the parking bay occupancy combined will greatly affect the flights of two days. Two hours and 30 minutes flight will be halt each day during the arrival and departure of the President. On Saturday, October 12, the flight will be halt from 2:55 PM till 5:25 PM and on Sunday, October 13, the flights will be halt from 11:20 AM to 2:50 in the afternoon as per the NOTAM issued by Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.
