Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) is planning to bring four new aircraft parking bays into operation in the next six months to manage air traffic congestion at the country’s only international airport.

Of the four new bays, two will be located at the eastern side of the runway. They can accommodate narrow-body aircraft, like A320 and Boeing 757, and will function as remote parking bays. Another two parking bays will be located at the southern side of the airport terminal. They can accommodate wide-body aircraft. “The TIA is facing severe crunch of aircraft parking space leading to delay in departure and arrival of flights,” said Raj Kumar Chettri, the newly appointed TIA general manager. “The new parking bays will help address traffic congestion problems on the ground.”

The new parking bays are currently being built. The construction of these bays, according to Chettri, is expected to be completed within next six months. “Once these parking bays are built, incidents of flights circling around the airport seeking parking space will come down. This will enable air traffic controllers to handle air traffic quite smoothly,” Chettri said. 

TIA is rushing to build new parking bays as the national flag carrier, Nepal Airlines Corporation, is set to add two new wide-body Airbus A330 aircraft to its fleet in May. If the parking space is not expanded by that time, the problem of air traffic congestion may get worse, according to the airport authority. 

The existing parking space at TIA can accommodate nine aircraft—three wide-body and remaining narrow-body. This parking space is not sufficient as many domestic airlines have inducted new aircraft into their fleets following rapid increase in number of air travellers. 

The expansion of fleet of domestic airlines, coupled with higher movement of international flights, has put immense pressure on aviation infrastructure. There are 20 domestic airlines and 29 international airlines using the country’s sole international airport.

TIA handles more than 500 flights daily, including 100 by foreign carriers, during the peak travel period. This flight movement is double than that recorded five years ago. The four new parking bays are being built using resources of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan). 

There are also plans to add nine more parking bays on the northern side of the airport under the TIA Air Transport Capacity Enhancement Project funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The parking bays under the ADB project will be completed by 2020.

According to Chettri, TIA is also planning to install two new luggage conveyor belts at the international arrival area within a year as the existing conveyor belts have not been able to process passenger luggage efficiently, forcing passengers to wait for hours to collect their baggage. 

Two new conveyor belts will be installed at the new terminal building of TIA. Currently, there are four conveyor belts at the international arrival area. “We are also planning to add luggage conveyor belts at the domestic terminal building, as lack of such equipment has delayed baggage clearance service,” added Chettri.