Early morning on Wednesday, a Turkish Airlines plane skidded off the runway after losing balance while landing at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA). Nepal’s only international airport remained closed for four days, as efforts to remove the aircraft continued until Saturday evening. Against this backdrop, Sangam Prasain and Darshan Karki spoke to former director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan) Rajesh Raj Dali about the possibility of upgrading the TIA, ways to use the airport in case of disasters and the need for a new international airport.

Isn’t the four-day closure of the TIA telling about its incapacity? How would it handle a natural disaster, say a huge earthquake in Kathmandu?

In general, most accidents occur during landing—as in the case of the Turkish Airlines A330 episode—take-off and approach than while flying in the air. So the airport must be equipped to handle such a situation. In case aircraft are disabled near the runway, there is a document called Removal of Disabled Aircraft (Roda), which provides the standard operating procedure. At such times, the airlines along with the airport and civil aviation authority pool their resources—equipment needed by various types of aircraft. Such resources, whether they be with the military, national or international carrier, are then used as needed. It is the duty of the ground handling to be aware of the availability of such resources based on the type of aircraft.

In case there is a natural disaster, every airport has helipads for emergency purposes. In case some patches of runway still exist after the disaster, we have technologies through which we can make use of them. Sometimes, steel-plates can be laid on them and aircraft built for emergency and rescue, which have short take-off and landing but carry heavy load, can be used. The Indian Airforce’s Hercules is one example. To be prepared for disasters, the TIA should have such aircraft.

What is the basis for ensuring safety in the aviation sector?

Safety in civil aviation mainly requires advanced planning. Taking many things into account, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (Icao) provides guidelines to service providers on the operation and regulation of airlines. The Icao lists conventions, annexes and documents to further explain the laws and manuals, and also directives. Following the guidelines, concerned authorities are supposed to ensure safe civil transportation. Unless we do so, we will continue to face lapses in safety. All nations must uniformly follow the standard operating procedure. Nepal cannot say it is a poor country and get away without meeting the criteria.

Does the TIA meet all the Icao requirements?

Caan is responsible for ensuring that Nepal meets those safety requirements and also to provide required facilities to passengers at the airport. Ideally, an international airport must function like a city where a person can find everything that one needs. One cannot transform the TIA in a day. Still, the speed at which this target can be met depends on the capability of the management, ability of the country’s economy and available technology. Only then, we can meet the guidelines.

So what exactly is the TIA’s problem? Has it been unable to handle growth in the aviation sector?

The development of the aviation sector of any country is dependent on the growth of the country. To develop this sector, the first thing we need is data. Based on the growth in the number of passengers, increase in number of aircraft and technological innovation, we can plan to enhance the capacity of the airport. This has been an ongoing process since the TIA was established. To do everything according to the international standards, however, would require adequate area and environment, among other things.

The TIA is like an airport in a teacup. To overcome the natural difficulties that come with being surrounded by hills, we cannot continue to argue for a better airport in the Capital only. We can expand, improvise up to a limit, say by operating the airport for 24 hours. For that, we need passengers, facilities and the trust of various airline companies. Still the TIA has other constraints. Let us say the airport operates for 24 hours. But it is not a sufficient condition; passengers need taxis at night, hotels that open late too. The entire city should open for 24 hours.  

Has the TIA exceeded its limit?

Not yet. The TIA can do more even in the space it currently occupies. For instance, it can bring in technologies that are more efficient and increase the number of check-in counters. Then it can process around 2,600 passengers from the current 1,300 in an hour. If you open the airport for 24 hours then it can handle even more people.

What about the required airspace?

It is definitely limited. This aspect falls under air traffic flow management wherein we calculate, among other things, the possibilities of delay in landing. If the weather is clear, we can ensure the flow of more aircraft. The flights land according to the visual flight rules. When the weather is not clear, the instrument flight rules come into operation and aircraft have to follow a predetermined route for landing. The aircraft reaches a certain point on air, it is put on hold and then lands one by one. If we run the airport for 24 hours with adequate technology, we can double TIA’s capacity. Then we have air service agreements and options to increase number of seats too.

Do you recall any  incident in the past, like the Turkish plane standoff, due to which the airport had to be closed down?

Sometime back in 1998 or 1999, when a military helicopter was flying out, it was trapped in the turning. It formed a pothole at around 6000ft north of the runway. The incident occurred at around 2-3 pm and the airport only reopened at 6 am the next morning. As we did not have flights at night then, the airport perhaps closed for around seven hours. We removed the pitch at night, put in fresh concrete and it took us a night to bring the airport back into operation. We had the machine and equipment for it.

What can aviation authorities do during such fiascos?

Airport officials must have the inventory of equipment and resources and where they are to act efficiently in times of emergency. Then a person just needs to coordinate with concerned authorities and procure them when disaster strikes. This will help us tackle both human errors and natural disasters. The Icao provides guidelines for such contingency planning—what can be done if the airport closes down.  

In our case, a single runway at TIA is not enough. A parallel runway is a must. So if one of it gets closed, the other can be used. In case of Nepal, one runway could be used for domestic flights and the other for international to ease traffic.

Is it feasible at the TIA?

No, it is not, due to its area. So we began the study of establishing another airport in Nijgadh. Alternatively, Bhairahawa could be a regional international airport.

Doesn’t the Bhairahawa airport run into  airspace problems?

People think that airplanes would reach the Indian airspace as soon as they take off from Bhairahawa. But the aircraft will fall east-west within Nepal’s airspace. So if the plane takes off from the east, it can take a right turn; if it takes off from the west it can take a left turn to acquire the level required for entering the Indian airspace. It will take only two or three minutes. Instead of directly entering the Indian airspace, you will need to circle once which is called the instrument departure procedure. We are already doing it at the TIA.

What about the need for a full-fledged international airport?

There is no alternative to establishing a second international airport at Nijgadh to cater to the demands of tourism in Nepal and the growing number of airlines operating in Nepal. Even if only 0.1 percent of the Indian and Chinese population start visiting Nepal, then we cannot handle them with our current facilities.

Building one or two kilometres of roads might not mean much but building the same length of runways has far more repercussions. So this is why a country must prioritise building runways. Moreover, it takes less time than constructing hydropower projects and it can also be expanded later on.

The Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand, for instance, began limited operations and then took  one more year to complete everything. The international airport in Singapore also started with a single runway. In Nepal, the capacity of the TIA can be enhanced while simultaneously building an international airport at Nijgadh. A runway can be built in three years and then we can add a parallel runway after a few years.

Would you say Nepal’s setback in the aviation sector is because of its airport bottleneck?

We also need a strong national carrier so as to travel to greater number of destinations. Its fare should also be more reasonable to passengers in comparison to that of private airline companies.