Kathmandu Airport?

I just heard a rumor that there is no air traffic control at the airport
in Kathmandu Nepal. Is this true, or just urban legend?


Curious is all.

Adam Weiss wrote:

I just heard a rumor that there is no air traffic control at the airport
in Kathmandu Nepal. Is this true, or just urban legend?

It's not true. The airport is fully equipped with air traffic control,
including separate controls for area, approach, and ground.

http://www.tiairport.com/air_info.htm

It does not appear that the airport is equipped with either radar or an
instrument landing system. That means all flights would have to operate
under visual flight rules when landing or taking off.

Adam Weiss wrote:
I just heard a rumor that there is no air traffic control at the airport
in Kathmandu Nepal. Is this true, or just urban legend?

There's a tower; I assume someone's in it.

Incidentally takeoffs and landings there are harrowing due to the
combination of thin air and the city being completely surrounded by
mountains.

miguel
--
Hit The Road! Photos and tales from around the world: http://travel.u.nu

"Adam Weiss" wrote in message
...
I just heard a rumor that there is no air traffic control at the airport
in Kathmandu Nepal. Is this true, or just urban legend?


Curious is all.

I think it was true a long trime ago, not now.
I flew out of there in the 70s and they had to get air traffic control
clearance from Calcutta then for international flights. My flight was
deleyed a day because they could not make radio contact with Calcutta
because of electrical storms or something like that. Some friends were
delayed 4 days. I wondered why they could just phone to Calcutta for a
clearance!

"RAK" wrote in
s.com:

I flew out of there in the 70s and they had to get air traffic control
clearance from Calcutta then for international flights.

It is not reasonable to describe this as Kathmandu airport air traffic
control. Nepal is a landlocked country and permission is needed to overfly
another country, in this case India. In those days, communications
technology wasn't as advanced or clearance processes as streamlined (there
were very few international flights to KTM in those days, except from
India).

They did NOT need permission from Calcutta for planes to take off from
Kathmandu if these were intra-Nepal flights.

Adam Weiss wrote in news:409D047D.3030806
@blockspam.org:

I just heard a rumor that there is no air traffic control at the airport
in Kathmandu Nepal. Is this true, or just urban legend?

False. On the other hand, they don't have much in the way of airport
security. I flew out of there the day after the 1999 hijacking of an Indian
plane by what we now know to be Al Qaeda. The X-ray guys weren't even
looking at their screens, and people were bypassing the process if
accompanied by officials.

Indian planes now have their own security process. But Nepal won't allow
foreign security personnel on their soil, so they use specially designed
stairs to the plane which have a landing half-way up (i.e. not on Nepali
soil!) where Indian security screening takes place.

Chuckles wrote:
Indian planes now have their own security process. But Nepal won't allow
foreign security personnel on their soil, so they use specially designed
stairs to the plane which have a landing half-way up (i.e. not on Nepali
soil!) where Indian security screening takes place.

So let's put it to a vote. Which is sillier: this, or having a time zone
that's 15 minutes off from India's?

miguel
--
Hit The Road! Photos and tales from around the world: http://travel.u.nu

"Chuckles" wrote in message
...
"RAK" wrote in
s.com:

I flew out of there in the 70s and they had to get air traffic control
clearance from Calcutta then for international flights.

....(cut)...

They did NOT need permission from Calcutta for planes to take off from
Kathmandu if these were intra-Nepal flights.

I realise that, I was was not talking about domestic flights.
I did say international flights.