The Airports Authority of India (AAI) plans to construct four more aircraft parking bays at the international terminal (T-II) of the Thiruvananthapuram international airport to resolve the parking woes of operating airlines.
The work will be taken up at ₹30 crore.
The capacity enhancement is part of AAI’s ₹20,000-crore infrastructure upgrade plan to add 273 parking bays at 24 airports managed by it across the country.
With their commissioning, the number of parking bays in the international terminal here will go up to 13. The domestic terminal (T-I) on Shanghumughom side has 11 parking bays.
Within a year
“The process of awarding tenders for the work is on and the parking bays will be completed within a year of commencing the work,” Airport Director George G. Tharakan told The Hindu on Tuesday.
The work will be executed in a phased manner without causing much hindrance to flight operations.
The taxiway will have to be closed and Notam (A Notice to Airmen) secured to alert the pilots worldwide as the work has to be undertaken in the operational area.
The new bays will be ‘remote’ and catering to either Code E or Code C aircraft. With this, the international terminal will have six bays that can handle Code E aircraft and seven bays that can handle Code C aircraft.
The new parking bays would come in handy for the AAI as several airlines had evinced interest in operating services to the airport in view of the increase in flyers via the airport, Mr. Tharakan said.
Out of the nine parking bays in T-II terminal, only three have aerobridges. The aircraft parked in the other six bays have to be accessed through coaches and boarding gate.
The AAI has recently commissioned a ₹1.5-crore remote boarding gate beneath the third aerobridge for hassle-free boarding and alighting from the aircraft during peak hours.
