Design Error: New Islamabad Airport is Already a Disaster

Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has admitted that the construction of new Islamabad Airport is not going as initially planned. A serious technical mistake was made which severely restricts the airport’s capability to handle two concurrent flights at the same time.

While briefing the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the new airport, CAA’s Director General, Air Marshall Asim Suleman (retd.) admitted that there had been a design error which was overlooked during the initial stages.

The design flaw prevents two aeroplanes from taking off or landing simultaneously despite the availability of two runways

PAC member, Shafqat Mehmood said it was “a criminal error.” Due to the technical error, CAA will not be able to handle any increase in traffic on the airport.

islamabad_airport_new

Birdeye View of New Islamabad Airport

According to the CAA’s estimates, the new airport was estimated to easily manage 9 million passenger annually, which is double the amount of passengers that the Benazir Bhutto International Airport can handle. In comparison, Karachi airport can only manage 6 million passengers per year.

What Happened?

DG CAA said that a US firm was contracted to design the airport runways and the firm suggested that two parallel runways can be constructed with a distance of 200 metres between both of them. However, after the runways were completed, technical experts said that an aircraft would not be able to take off while another one is landing. The same problem would arise of two planes were landing simultaneously.

The Design Flaw

According to him “For the concurrent landing or taking off of aeroplanes, the minimum distance between two parallel runway strips should be one kilometre.” It can still be done, but one of the planes has to be on the ground for the other one to start its task (flight or takeoff), hence a delay in every flight.

He admitted that the flaw in the design should have been noticed and corrected during the initial phase. It was overlooked and contractors ended up building two runways with a distance of 201 metres.

Another Act of Manipulation

PAC Member, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, made another astounding revelation regarding the road infrastructure of the airport. He said that the real estate mafia used their influence to link the airport road with their housing societies.

Rather than constructing a straight road from Golra Mor (Kashmir Highway), like the initial plan, the road will be constructed in a zigzag manner in order to link most of the housing societies near the area. Another official said, the Army’s Central Mechanical Transport and Storage Depot also opposed the construction forcing them to redesign.

The road will now start at Golra Mor towards the entrance to the Motorway and then take a turn from Peshawar Interchange before linking the airport.

Read More: Another Shocking Revelation About the New Islamabad Airport Scandal

What’s More

Two dams are also being established to supply the airport with water. Ramma and Kassana dams will be able to supply up to 3.3 million gallons of water each day. The dams will rely on rainwater and once the water level reaches maximum, it would be sufficient for two whole years.

The airport is estimated to be completed by December 2016, however, the designers have already left the country and any future construction might be delayed especially if the runways are constructed again.

The DG CAA has also been asked to explain the alleged awarding of the Lahore Airport extension to Turkey and Qatar based firms without going through any bidding process.

Frankly, we cannot help but be absolutely flabbergasted at this display of incompetence. The US firm responsible for the design, the reviewers on the Pakistani side and everyone managing the project need to be held accountable for this waste of taxpayer money not to even mention the time that’s going to be spent on rectifying the issues facing New Islamabad Airport.

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He is the Chief Content Officer at ProPakistani. Reach out at aadil.s[at]propakistani.pk


  • wow.. Aik Roads aur Motorways banany ka kaam aata tha shairon ko uss main bhe bhand maar diya. Yeh note he ginty reh gaey aur designing firm bhag gai :)
    Only in Pakistan Things :D

    • Bara dukh hota hai jab hmare parhe likhe nojawan jahilon wali baten krte hain
      Bhai mere design kai saal pehle approve ho chuka tha, is Gov k time mein nhi hua
      Btw I m not a supporter of NS, lekn mjhe pata hai ab mjhe bari galiyan parne wali hain, aur mjhe patwari ka laqab bhi mil jaega

    • don’t under estimate others…This airport can handle a single flight at once.. but a German airport can’t handle a single flight and still change since beginning of constructions due to design blunders…and lot more examples… but the responsible firm should be fined to rebuild the flawed part….

  • Is there is anything which our government can do property oh i forgot major field of expertise is creating offshore accounts borrowing loans, begging for aid and putting tax on citizen.

  • there are numerous runways with parallel take offs and landing where the distance between runways is not 1 KM. It is not at San Francisco airport. You simply have to have one aircraft wait for a few minutes before other one lands. This is only an issue if you ave to fly an aircraft every two minutes and takeoff/land the other one in same two minutes 24 hours a day 7 days a week. That kind of traffic is only seen on a few airports say Heathrow, Chicago or Dubai. For us if we get a flight every half an hour that is a bi deal. So it all depends on the spec. Regarding the US firm and other contractors it all depends what the initial RFP said, if it didn’t say that the two simultaneous aircraft had to land and take off at exact the same time, there is no way the contractor would have designed it that way. One need to look at initial RFP before accusing the contractor and the others.

      • SFO can handle parallel landings only under VFR(visual flight rules) as the centrelines of two runways are 213 meters apart but flights under IFR(instrument flight rules ) have a requirement of 1300m distance between runways centrelines for simultaneous parallel operations.

        If you are going to use single runway at a time, whats the use of building 2 runways in the same direction ?

    • if so.. then why CAA admitted that construction is not going as planned?

      • the Committee Members intimidate you to say what they want to hear. Been there done that. The only thing the poor CAA guy would have said is that yes two aircraft can’t at exactly the same time lan for take off. And the Senator / MNA would have jumped on it and said, yes see that is an error – you are building a new airpot and two aircraft can’t take off at exactly the same time – without realizing if there is a need for it or not. Nothing is build for something that is not needed in next ten years. you do a cost/benefit analysis in large projects all the time. See my other comment – you leave room for expansion – a more fair followup question should have been – ok fine, but have you keep allowance to expand the airport 10 years from now when you will need that extra runway which is 1 KM away.

        And one more thing can you count the number of airports in the world which have two runways only and both of them are more than 1 KM apart. If the answer is no or very few then you know why? It doesn’t make sense. You don’t build for exceptions, you build for norms.

        • Please do not spread wrong info. It wasn’t a CAA guy. He’s the DG of CAA and a retired Air Marshall. He’s no run-of-the-mill ordinary guy who can be easily forced to say what is required.
          The whole article revolves around CAA’s admission of multiple mistakes which were not supposed to happen. The DG said that it was a mistake/fault/error which was identified too late.
          The airport is going to manage double the amount of traffic that almost any other airport does. Two runways were part of the plan because of it. It is a requirement to have two planes takeoff or land simultaneously.
          The reason why there are some airports with less than 1km distance is not because they had a choice. It was their need as they had limited land to expand the airports. New Islamabad airport is being build right now according to plans, not an expansion to a previous airport. It has all the land to comply with the requirements without making any compromises. And what justification could anyone have for constructing the runways at just a separating distance of 200m.
          Its in the news that the intentional plans are not met.
          And if you know about aeroplanes, you should know about the 10 minute rule. Its the time difference that two planes must have for simultaneous. I dont where you brought your two minutes from. If you have ever travelled in an aeroplane you would still know it takes more than two minutes to land.

          • Well sir, check out the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) rules in the US. The horizontal distance has to be 3-5 miles between planes when landing, at 150 mph landing speed that is about 2.5 minutes. Here is the link to an article that discusses it. I have flown widely across the world and lived the life of a consultant pretty much flying every week for over 3 years so have observed similar patterns at O’Hare, SFO and Pittsburg-PA airports. It is surely ain’t 10 minutes like you suggest. Also the 3-5 miles rules applies when you have an airport equipped with radar so ATC has visual and radar contact with the planes.

            “For a commercial airliner (as the question asked), separation will usually be at least 3 miles laterally, or 1,000 feet vertically. In the enroute environment — at higher operating speeds above 10,000 feet and based on the type of Radar and distance from the antennae — a 5 mile rule is applied laterally. This is true in most but not all situations. There are exceptions: see below.” taken from http://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/2806/how-much-is-the-minimum-safe-distance-between-two-planes-in-flight

            To your other point the justification for constructing the runways less than 1 KM apart, a I noted earlier, is lower cost to build, plain and simple. It is like buying a Mercedes when you can do away with a Civic. Keep expansion plan in mind (have the land around) but build only when you need it especially when the technology changes so fast.

            • Sir, I am amazed to see that you learned the techniques, skills and procedures of air traffic control by merely travelling via an airplane. It is unheard off and you must be some genius.
              Jokes apart. Firstly, FAA isn’t a global aviation authority. Secondly, you are quoting some comment off of Stack Exchange as if its some fact. Thirdly, you should have read the whole comment as it said there are exceptions for parallel runways. Finally, the data quoted in the comment was cancelled by the FAA months ago.
              If you are going to quote someone, quote International Civil Aviation Organization. They say that a distance of 1km is required at the very least for independent departures and arrivals.
              And if you really want easy to understand info on this matter. Read this book which quotes FAA rules and explains them. https://books.google.com.pk/books?id=2w_PCwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA253&ots=o6USCqjvfm&dq=air%20transport%20association%20runway%20separation&pg=PA253#v=onepage&q=air%20transport%20association%20runway%20separation&f=false
              Simply riding an aeroplane will not give you the knowledge of international flight regulations.

          • Let’s just make one thing clear. Even if they had made the two runways according to initial specifications, I’ll bet you anything no two planes would ever be taking off or landing simultaneously.

            • Ever? Isn’t that too big a bet. If they were planning 9 million passengers its is very possible this could happen every now and then. Can even happen when the flight schedule gets real busy.
              And who knows if a few years from now the traffic increases even more.
              If you have something planned, it should be built accordingly. Surely nobody can justify that they did not make a mistake which will cost billions to repair.

          • Sir there is no “ten minute rule”. Just go to dubai. theres a plane taking off and landing every minute almost. One runway handles landings, one handles take offs. and often both simultaneous.
            ps. Zia Sb and I both travel a LOT!

    • they are saying this bcz airports are not made every second year. they are planned for long terms. For instance, if tody they have a traffic of 2 flights per hour but there might be a possibility that after 5-6 years or maybe 10 years there will be a traffic of 20 flights per hour.. So, let them decide :)

    • Yes, even if that’s true, it’s the consultants responsibility to at least point out and say, “just to let you know, you’ll be restricted to one flight at a time based on your RFP, are you OK with that?”

      I understand your viewpoint completely, and if what you said is true, ultimately the people who created the RFP are accountable. It’s just that a good consulting firm would have been able to avoid this situation.

  • another important issue is the use of foreign made material instead of local, which has quadrupled the cost. For example bathroom tiles are imported from china, floor tiles are imported from malaysia, floor granite is imported from china and there is nothing, absolutely nothing special in them. We have 100 times better local products here.

    • You are mistaken bro. I recently completed my house construction in lahore. 70% of the material used is chinese. Door locks wardrobe handle locks .electric buttons led lights lamps bath tiles floor tiles bath fittings etc .
      And for the tiles you are mentioning yes chinese tile high quality is expensive but i am sorry to say that pakistani tile simply cannot compete them now in terms of quality and finish . If you said these words 10 years before i might have believe you with close eyes. But today chinese product quality is superb better than ours.
      Our industry is dying . Its sad but true. If the situation remain same our industry will shut down completly in next 10 to 15 years.

      To make sure what i have said . Go to college road or ghazi road in lahore and you will see they are flooded with 80% chinese products and they are getting better in quality day by day.

      I am sorry if my words are harsh for you . But i have came to know this all during my home construstion. 100% buying done by myself

      • you took words out of my mouth :)….Sad but 100% true….when our so called businesses cant compete they try to hide behind patriotism…..we shouldn’t privatize PIA our national “asset” Steal Mill another……..a long list of our national assets….in reality they are becoming our biggest liabilities and robing tax payers money

    • These are sub standard chinese and malaysian tiles being used in new airport. i can share pics.

      • I’m pretty sure they’re still a hundred times better than local ones.

    • people use such things in their homes and you are talking to use local made material in airport… wow

  • 1 km separation requirement is not valid…Because at Dubai international airport the separation between two parallel runways is 370 metre. What they can do is make one runway longer than the other.

  • Lie it doesn’t have any design flaw. Paisa kamanay ka naya tariqa. Check out SFO airport.

  • Nuclear Nation But Can’t Build and Airport….. what the F***** is this

    • Aqeel Shahzad F****** sahab, edday tussay desperate ho…………apni degree laikey kion nahin aa jaonday…..ey pattukh pattukh karran di laurr nai………..kurrian wangoon…….array kia museebat hai, mein to challi…………

    • there are many nations who are expert in one thing but not in other… these are companies which make every big thing possible now a days. state owned production is not possible every where…

  • …. continuing gooney previous comment. I have worked for govt for two years and have been to these committee hearings. There is a lot of point scoring in these meetings and since the respondents can’t speak much due to decorum and the control the committee members have, they keep shouting at you and sometime cross the line. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was not the case here too. Just think logically, how many airports you have seen in the world, where two runways are 1 km apart !!!?? Why do you need to have an airport where the two runways are 1 KM apart. Only if you will have two aircraft landing and taking off at exactly the same time. That kind of traffic is perhaps seen during Hajj season in Jeddah but I don’t see this happening in Pakistan in a generation. And has anybody done any numbers on who expensive the airport would become if the two runways have to be 1 KM apart. I mean the extra length of the wires and cables that has to be used alone will cost crores of extra rupees. I would counter argue that in fact building an airport where runways are 1 KM apart given traffic loads and projected traffic loads over the next decade would be a waste of money.

    We should future reproof the airport by acquiring extra land and keep it fallow so that one day when we do need that 1 km apart extra runway we have land available and don’t need to relocate the airport like we have to do now (expansion capacity). But building that 1 km apart runway today to me is wasteful.

    This is probably some half smart MNA / Senator showing his efficiency and half knowledge of airpots to press a point and taking it out on poor officials of CAA who are trying to explain their position with MNA / Senator in no mood to listen.

    very typical of proceedings of national assembly and senate committees. Been there seen the circus first hand.

    • Main nay is ko vote nahi Dia ye nalayak laug election riging Kar kae ate hai aur ppp aur pmln nay apas me muhada Kia hua hay 5 Saal tum lotto 5 Saal hum lootay Jay

  • True but you don’t want to build a 110 story building today which will only have 30 stories used for next 10 years. The prudent thing to do would be to keep extra land around but build small. When need arises you use extra land to build that 1 km away runway. You keep the expansion option but don’t waste money today. It is like I will use extra strength steel in my house so if I have to build a second floor 5 years from now, I can do that but don’t build the second floor today.

    Airports are added to all the time. Look at Terminal 5 at Heathrow, it just got built in last 5 years when the need arose. They had the land for it and they build it. You do the same keep expansion in mind and save the rest of the money (acquire the land but don’t build what you will need 20 years from now when you will have new technology and will need new features anyway not even invented today).

  • ha ha ha Sahi kaha Raheel…………..damagh apna nahin hai ……..pata inko naihn ke heer larka tha yaan larki

  • oh bhai yeh dubai airport ki pic hai woh bhi parallel hai, wahan hur doosray minutes flight aati aur jati hain.

    • dono runway kay beech mein 400 meter ka distance hai, tabhi 2 aircraft land/take off ho saktay hein.

      • waha waisy bhi A380 ziada hoty hain Emirates k.. baqi to choty waly boing and airbuses hoty hain…

  • “For simultaneous landings and takeoffs using VFR, the minimum separation between centerlines of parallel runways is 700 feet (213 m).” FAA

  • http://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/12931/what-is-the-minimum-distance-allowed-between-two-parallel-runways

    [QUOTE]

    In the United States, the FAA has published Advisory Circular 150/5300-13A, Airport Design , which includes recommendations for parallel runway separation.

    In summary,

    “For simultaneous landings and takeoffs using VFR, the minimum separation between centerlines of parallel runways is 700 feet (213 m).”

    For simultaneous IFR operations, “Dual simultaneous precision instrument approaches are normally approved on parallel runway centerline separation of 4,300 feet (1311 m). On a case-by-case basis, the FAA will consider proposals utilizing separations down to a minimum of 3,000 feet (914 m) where a 4,300 foot (1311 m) separation is impractical. This reduction of separation requires special high update radar, monitoring equipment, etc.” Note: Simultaneous Offset Instrument Approaches allow as little as 750 ft between runway centerlines.

    International regulations do differ. ICAO have their own standards
    [/QUOTE]

    [QUOTE]
    Based on ICAO doc9157 Aerodrome Design Manuel Part1 Runway, the minimum distance between centre lines of 2 parallel( or near-parallel ) runways is

    For Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) operation:

    210m for category 3( runway length=1200m-1800m ) and category 4( runway length>1800m )

    150m for category 2( runway length=800m-1200m )

    120m for category 1( runway length<800m )

    And for Instrument flight Condition (IMC) operation:

    1035m for independent parallel approaches ( radar separation minima between aircraft and adjacent centre line is not prescribed)

    915m for independent parallel approaches ( radar separation minima between aircraft and adjacent centre line is prescribed)

    760m for independent parallel departures or Segregated parallel operations (one exclusive for departure and another for landing)

    PS: It can be reduced by 30m for each 150m arrival runways is staggered toward arrival aircraft down to 300m between centre line of two runways; and vice versa (but no maximum)

    When two runways are closer than the regulations above, only one can be "operated" at the same time (eg: LGW). Even though only one of the parallel runway would be operated at the same time, the separation of the runway have to follow the "Runway strip rule", which is

    75m each side from the centre lines for category 3/4

    40m each side for category 2

    30m each side for category 1

    Therefore minimum distance of two parallel runways is the sum of the strips,ie: minimum distance of two parallel 4E/F runways is 75+75=150m from their centre lines.

    The above is global standard which represents the minimum requirement of runway , other aviation authorities such as FAA in US may have stricter standard.
    [/QUOTE]

    I don't think it's a big issue.

  • What I understood, two aircrafts cannot land in parallel but there would be no issue if their is little delay [say one minute] in both landings… so whats the big deal? it is the same situation in all modern airports including Dubai… do they wanted to have aircraft race on runways :) Secondly, if parallel landing was the requirement, this is purely an engineering design failure at CAA and American consultant who were responsible for the designing and construction of project.

  • Where this figure of 1KM distance came from??? where all major international airports (Manchester Ringway, Dubai International) with 2 parallel runways have distance of 385 meters in between from center line, and Islamabad international wont be handling traffic twice as much as they are, in fact even half. Even Manchester dont have two full runways, but a main runway and one air strip. With expectation of 70% of the small-mid size aircraft using runways, 2 at a time can be perfectly operational, exception would be 2 747’s or A380’s which is very highly unlikely, of course two heavy can wait for 5 minutes, which is still better just one main runway, now it’s all down to the skills of ATC how they handle the traffic.

    • Cha gay ho jnaab.. yahan konsa line lgi hui aircrafts ki… lahore/ karachi sy dubai to sb jaty hain.. ata koi koi hy.. ha ha ha

      • woi keh rya hun bhaya, koi flaw nai, sab bahanay hein qaum ki jaib say aur paisa nikalwanay kay, runways are perfectly apart for the traffic, yeh to aisay baat kar rahay hein jaisay south asia ka hub airport issi ko banana hai, this airport can easy handle twice as much traffic as current Islamabad airport is doing.
        Best thing, airport is named “Liaqat Ali Khan”, rather than Kulsoom nawaz or hamza shahbaz airport.

        • lol…. hubs are not easy to establish and maintain.. dubai has done lot of work in terms of infrastructure and aviation to become and sustain as hub of Asian air traffic….

  • Nawaz sharif was busy counting and laundering the comission money to his sons offshore companies instead of keeping an eye whats going on

    • Cheap shot to cover the blunder of Musharraf. The initial work for this airport was under Musharraf and like everything else he did, it was flawed. In 10 years Musharraf didn’t add one KW to national energy grid. It’s no surprise if he failed with the long overdue airport that finally Nawaz Sharif will finish at least!

  • Read the News of today! all the project managers linked with the projcet aren’t Even Qualified Engineers & One of them is a Homeopathic Doctor…. #RoflCopter Pakistan.. :D

  • Failed Management is running whole country. Corrupt and dumb minds are doing decision making so this is the outcome… A project got failed before it even started.

  • Lanat hy, Rtd air marshal ko bhi pata nahi k 2 runways k bech ka distance kia hona chahye

  • After reading all comments here and some reasearch now i am convinced this is not the design flaw rather a move to make more money to fix the mistake which is not actually the mistake.

  • The distance between 2 runways that can be simultaneously used is can be 200-300 meters. For an easy exmple just take a flight to dubai.
    Also khi airport designed capacity is 12million, not 6. It is currently 6 because runway 25R is not well maintained and there isnt sufficient traffic.

  • Karachi airport is operating with two Runways having the distance between as 240 meters (approximately). For reference, please see the attached screenshot of GoogleEarth.

    This airport is being used for simultaneous landing / takeoff having an annual capacity of 12 million passenger handling… For reference, you can visit this link. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinnah_International_Airport

    Contrary to it, newly built Islamabad Airport (Liaquat Ali Khan Airport) is having the distance between both runways as 345 meters. Refer to the second screenshot of GoogleEarth.

    Who on the earth said that distance between two runways as 200 meters can not accommodate simultaneous landing / takeoff?

    Never expected Aamir Atta allowing such fake and misleading post on his website… I am just raising the flag… Aamir to google a little and see the worldwide practices and standards… and then post an apology on this website for allowing such a misleading article. At least, ProPakistani.Pk I always thought as of a reliable source of technology far away from the today’s propganda journalism. Highly disappointed.

  • You are right, asal mein kasur govt ka nhi hota hamari jahil awam ka hota hai jo k media aur social media ko apna khuda mante hain, jo media kehta hai use man lete hain aur aik dusre k khilaf aag ubalte rehte hain.

  • Haan bhai yahan Abotabad main dosry mulk ki army ghuss i aur bandy maar gai pr Govt responsible nahi thi :)
    Bro itna dukh agr inhain vote dety wqt hota tou kya baat thi. Kya aap aware nahi hain k jb koi govt aati hai tou pichli govt k tamam projects ko hold kr diya jata hai. Institutions k chairman apni marzi k lagaey jaty hain sb kuch naey siry sy hota hai. Pervez Ilahi k kitny projects issi trha pending main chaly gaey PCB, PIA, SSGS iss trha k kitny idaron k liye apny log laey gaey projects ko revise kiya gya. iss Airport ki cost bhe issi Govt k time main barhi hai na? Kya wajah rhi ho gi ? Runways banna tou issi govt k time py start huey thy kyn nahi roki gai construction jb k maloom tha k design main fault hai? Firm k sath sath Govt bhe responsible hai. Apny sy pehly logo py malba dalny k aadat nahi choty gi iss qoum ki.
    Error fix kiye bina Runways ki construction ki wajah sirf commission khana aur kick bags wasool karna tha. Ab bhugto aur DUKHi hoty raho.


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