In assessing risk for such projects, major types are inherent development risk
Risk and safety have always been considered critical in civil aviation. An increase in airport capacity in a given region usually involves changes to runways layout, route structures and traffic distribution, which in turn effect the risk level around the airports.
In assessing risk for airport development projects, the major types are inherent development risk.
In identifying and analysing relative risk determinants, which could affect the magnitude and type of risk that development projects face, including the presence of a dominant airline, the airport’s rate structure, the airport’s ownership and operating structure, local demand, and geopolitical events.
The pivotal questions which now arise is whether the executive decisions of the Chief Minister actually serve to mitigate the risks and challenges being faced by a new Airport with a relatively unproven safety record.
The International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Location Identifier is a unique 3-letter code (also commonly known as IATA code) used in aviation and also in logistics to identify an airport.
For Mopa Airport, the Location Identifier is: GOX
For IATA, it is essential that airport planning and infrastructure development encompasses safe, functional, capacity balanced and user-friendly airports.
Working closely with airlines, airport authorities, regulators and design consultants, IATA seeks to ensure that airport development strategies result in affordable, flexible facilities that support airline operational and customer experience requirements now and in the future.
The airport master plan ensures that all airside, landside and airport support facilities can improve and/or expand their operations in a coordinated manner that benefits all parties.
Master plans should be based on common airline and airport business development strategies.
Once the master plan is determined, the facility development programs can be organized in phases, allowing modular, incremental growth in accordance with traffic forecasts and the business strategies of the airline community, the airport and other key stakeholder groups.
While ensuring a fair, neutral and transparent allocation of airport slots at airports is essential for airlines, airports and consumers, what’s more curious is that aviators throughout the world use the Global Positioning System (GPS) to increase the safety and efficiency of flight.
This space-based position and navigation enables three-dimensional position determination for all phases of flight from departure, en route, and arrival, to airport surface navigation. Thereby communicating with navigation satellites, detailed real-time data on flight variables can be passed to a server on the ground.
Moreover, the Navigation Systems in the Commercial Aircraft which are already in service would need a major software overhaul to recognise the new Airport when the default Airport in the GPS Systems of the Aircraft Computer has been preset as GOI i.e. Goa Dabolim Airport.
Moreover, on a newly designed runway when the wind is not blowing down the runway on which the aircraft pilot plans to land, the aircraft would have to do a crosswind landing.
These landings are difficult, mainly because the wind tries to blow the aircraft away from the runway approach path, so landing techniques need to overcome this. Even fairly experienced private pilots have a hard time with them.
Comparatively speaking, the airport on Portugal’s Madeira Island is infamously known for hosting one of the world’s most challenging approaches and landings.
Pilots scheduled to arrive here must undergo additional training, studying the approach in detail.
Airlines wishing to fly into Madeira’s FunchalAirport require special approval from the Portuguese aviation authority.
Interestingly, with Oman Air announcing it’s intention to shift operations to Mopa Airport, it needs to be borne in mind that the Boeing 737 MAX 8 Aircraft which the Omani Airline continues to operate has a very peculiar configuration whereby the engines of the Aircraft are relatively large in size in comparison to its predecessor aircraft and this design modification would in turn reduce the ground clearance of the aircraft from the runway surface area.
This coupled with the fact that the Oman Air Pilot Cadet Training Program for Omani Nationals is only a 14 month program, makes one wonder if the shift to a new Airport would really be an optimal for the operations of the international carrier airline.
Airlines perform multiple route evaluations in order to know if a route will be profitable in the long-term or not.
Here are the four key considerations that an airline must make while both tweaking existing routes and planning new ones.
Demand forecasting: Before starting a new route, airlines want to know how many passengers will travel on their flight.
This data comes from within the airline itself, as well as industry-wide passenger data that identifies trends in traffic.
Connectivity at the Hub: Airlines can predict revenue and profitability on a route depending on different times of the day.
If the flight is scheduled at a time of the day where there are no possibility of connections to other cities, then the airline might not do as good as a flight that is timed for inbound and outbound connections.
Aircraft availability: Major airliners with a large fleet of aircraft might be able to find a spare aircraft and assign it to the new route.
Not all aircraft can fly on a particular route. Aircraft limitations are taken into account when aircraft are assigned to a route.
Matching the competition: Flying to a smaller city with no airline competition might be a better option. Some airlines might have an advantage over smaller ones.
Large airlines, as mentioned earlier, can feed their flights at their hubs with connecting passenger traffic.
On the other hand, smaller airlines who do not operate many flights at their home airport might mostly rely on local traffic to fill their flights.
