Bangalore international airport: New problems in the air

Bangalore international airport: New problems in the air
Tuesday May 20 2008 12:36 IST

Monica Jha
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BANGALORE: After traffic hold-ups on City roads, Bangaloreans will very soon get used to traffic jams in the skies after the new airport commences operations. And these hold-ups can be 30 to 45 minutes long, especially between morning and evening hours like 8.30 am to 10.30 am and 5.30 pm to 8.30 pm.

Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) has around 40 per cent of Bangalore airspace but cannot use many parts of its neighbouring airspace as they belong to the Yelahanka base of Indian Air Force and the HAL Airport. (Refer map.) Only the airspace towards its north is effectively available to BIA without any restrictions.

All aircraft departing from BIA cannot take a left or right turn towards its destination without ascending 7,000 feet above the mean sea level (AMSL). Traffic arriving at BIA from south (Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram etc) can cross Bangalore only at a height of 12,000 feet.

Traffic from Mumbai can descend below 20,000 feet only within 30 nautical miles (NM) of BIA. (Map) BIA runway is only 4 NM away (North) from the runway at IAF Yelahanka base and 10 NM (North) from the runway at HAL Airport. BIAL has plans for a second runway, 1 NM South from its existing runway (towards Yelahanka).

These distances might not cause immediate safety concerns but will certainly result in huge air congestion and delay in flight landing and departure.

According to Director General of Civil Aviation, safe distance between two aircraft is 1,000 feet (vertical) 5 NM (horizontal) near an airport.

In case an Airbus A320 (fast moving, can climb 2,500 feet per minute) departing for Thiruvananthapuram is right behind an ATR (1,000 feet per minute) departing for Kochi, the A320 will have to wait in the queue until the ATR ascends to 7,000 feet and takes a left turn.