Facing runway crunch, future bleak for BIA

Facing runway crunch, future bleak for BIA


B Aravinda Shetty
First Published : 25 Dec 2008 02:57:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 25 Dec 2008 08:48:46 AM IST

BANAGLORE: The Airports Authority of India (AAI), which recently said that the passenger handling capacity of Bangalore International Airport (BIA), will reach saturation level and is below international standards, came out with more damning evidence against BIA’s future operations.

According to AAI, the runway capacity of BIA is going to get saturated by 2011 and the aircraft parking bays are just sufficient for current level of operations.

The technical committee of AAI in its report to the State High Court on December 19, 2009, has focused on terminals, runway capacity, aircraft parking bays, car parking and cargo capacities of BIA.

The peak per hour runway capacity at BIA is 30 to 32 movements of aircraft as against the current peak hour demand of 25 movements per hour, so the runway will be found wanting in 2011, the AAI report says.

“The existing number of aircraft parking bays are 42 as against the current demand of 41. Therefore, the existing parking bays are just sufficient for the current level of operations.

Thirty additional parking bays are under construction and with this addition, the available parking bays will meet the demand for the next four to five years,” the report observes.

Parking sufficient for 5 years

BIA has 2,000 parking stands for commercial cars and 75 stands for coaches. In addition to this, a provision has been made for 1,200 staff car parking stands. The car parking facilities are sufficient for the next five years.

However, separate car parking facilities at the cargo terminal are not available, the report says.

While dealing with the capacity of terminals, the AAI team has found that the customs counters are not operational.

Once the existing customs counters become operational, capacity of the check-in area will increase by another 600 passengers.

The AAI technical team consisting of D P Singh, Madhu Batra, V Krishnan and A Pal conducted the study between June 16 and 18, 2008, after a single judge bench of the High Court directed the Civil Aviation Ministry to conduct an assessment study of the airport.

The court had passed the order while hearing the petition on challenging the closure of HAL airport. In the petition filed by G R Mohan, a city-based advocate, argued that the terminals and runway capacity in BIA is not adequate to meet the demands.