The entire media is a buzz with after the news about the environmental clearance was got for the airport by the ministry of environment.
Now the AAI is planning to make the Boeing planes land by May end, but this could too early in some cases. And for this to happen the airport will have to be shut for atleast 3 months so that faster and smoother runway expansion works takes places.
Belagavi Airport is currently an operational airport (Aerodrome Reference Code 3C) having total land area 360
34 Acres. A MOU has signed between AAI and Karnataka Govt. for modernization/development of Belgaum Airport. AAI will upgrade the Belgaum Airport and make it operational for all Code-C type of aircraft meeting the licensing criteria. At present one flight per day of ATR-72 aircraft operates from Belgaum Airport. After expansion it will operate A-321 aircrafts with minimum seating capacity of 169 passengers and four flights per day.
The expansion phase of the airport will involve extension of runway with facilities such as terminal building, apron, apron shoulder, taxi track, runway shoulder, boundary wall, perimeter roads and parking facilities. All the existing facilities will be modernized during expansion. An additional land of about 370 acres will be required for the expansion. The estimated cost of the project is 293.35 crores.
The Airport also operates non-scheduled Charters for business, ceremonies and other several important occasions.
Traffic potential of Belgaum Airport for the year 2012-2013 is 378 aircraft movements and 13778 passengers & traffic forecast for 2015-16 is 754 aircraft movements and 47513 passengers.
Forecast for 2016-17 is 792 and 52265 passengers
Forecast for 2017-18 is 831 and 57491 passengers
and forecast for 2022-2023 years is 1222 aircraft movements and 92590 passengers.
The existing Airport in Belgaum is spread over 360.34 acres and has only one runway oriented 08/26, 1830 m in length.
The existing runway of 1830 m would be extended to 2300 m and the width would remain the same to 45 m.
The proposed new taxiway is 23 m wide, 228.5 m long with 3.5 mtrs wide shoulders on both sides. There will be provision of new Isolation Bay 120 m × 100 m and 270 m × 23 m Link Taxiway with 3.5 m wide shoulder suitable to cater for code “C” type of aircraft.
A new parking apron of size 157.50 m × 130 m for parking aircraft 3 number Category C Aircrafts has been proposed.
There will be provision of new Isolation Bay 120 m × 100 m and 270 m × 23 m Link Taxiway with 3.5m wide shoulder suitable to cater for code “C” type of aircraft.
After expansion it will be designed for the traffic requirements which are estimated to be increased to 200 passengers at a time (100 in arrivals and 100 in departures).
The Parking area will be increased from 2500 m2 to 20000 m2. It is expected that the proposed parking will fulfill the requirement up to 2025.
The air side civil works include-
• Extension, Widening & Strengthening of Runway from 1830 x 45 m to 3200 x 45 m (Flexible Pavement)
• Construction of New Apron of Size 158 x 130 m with 3.5 m shoulder on all-around (Rigid pavement)
• Construction of New Isolation Bay of Size 120 x 100 m with 3.5 m shoulder on all around, (Rigid
Pavement)
• Construction of Taxi-track for New Apron- 228.5 x 23 m with 3.5 shoulder on either side.
• Construction of Taxi-track for New Isolation Bay – 270 x 23 m with 3.5 shoulder on either side.
• Fire station cum control tower.
Presently Belgaum airport handles ATR-72 aircraft, the seating capacity of ATR-72 is around 74 passengers. That means the airport is capable of handling 150 passengers at peak (75 passengers alighting & 75 passengers boarding). I guess we donot get to see 74 passengers alighting and another 74 boarding whenever an aircraft lands at Belgaum. I guess the nos. of passengers alighting & boarding is less than 20 each, this means the airport infrastructure is under utilized.
Now expansion plans are for handling A321 aircrafts, the seating capacity of A-321 is around 200 passengers. That means whenever a flight lands at Belgaum the airport would handle 400 passengers at peak (200 passengers alighting & 200 passengers boarding). Can we pratically get to see these numbers in Belgaum airport consistently on a daily basis? (200 passengers flying everyday consistently from Belgaum and another 200 comming to Belagum by flight everyday). This is quite serious, I guess this may not be possible in the next 10 years also. By expanding the airport and equipping it to handle A-321 aircrafts the airport would be “future ready” or rather “far future ready”. By considering the present load factor at Belgaum the operating charges per passenger would be very high with the improvised airport, can this be sustained on a long term – may be not, apparently this may turn out to be infeasible and may be forced to shut down the services. Whatever services of ATR-72 we have at the moment that also will go away. So folks this is a serious issue.