ROMANIA MONITOR
Date: 6 April 2018
Bucharest Main Airport will Start Runway Repairing Work
Bucharest’s Henri Coanda International Airport, accounted with having recorded the highest passengers processing capacity last year – more than 7 million – will enter a revamping process, after the Romanian Civil Aviation Authority issued a document concerning the poor condition of the main runaway. The work will start on April 12 and will be carried out in several phases so not to affect the airport’s operations. An association that monitors infrastructure in Romania signalized that a piece of the runway broke when a larger plane took off last week.
After a Romanian Association dealing with infrastructure monitoring has published some photos of runway problems faced by the largest Romanian airport, boardingpass.ro published the document sent by the Romanian Civil Aeronautics Authority to Henri Coanda’s management, calling for air traffic restrictions for certain aircraft categories. This measure follows an incident reported last week, during which one of the runways, severely damaged by the degradation and pits was shut down urgently after a Boeing 747 plane dislocated a piece of the take-off zone. Thus, Otopeni should no longer operate Boeing 757, 767, Airbus A300, A310, Boeing 747, 777, 787, Airbus A330, A340, A350, Boeing 747-8 and Airbus A380 aircraft.
According to the Bucharest Airport National Company, some last year investments were directed to a repairing program of the 08R track. Also, following the incident, the runway surface was checked and the problem was eliminated, while the traffic was redirected to the 08L track, and was not affected.
Henri Coanda International Airport, the biggest Romanian airport, had to deal with a similar situation in 2017, when a member of the Transport Commission of the Romanian Parliament asked the management team to explain why one of the tracks (08L / 26R) was out of use and therefore had only 2,200 usable meters. Thus, the airport was operating with a single track of 2,200 meters which led to delays, as larger planes were not able to land or take off in proper conditions.
Last month, TAROM’s director, Mr. Werner Wolff said in Timisoara that an investment is needed at Otopeni Airport, where the poor condition of the main runway forces TAROM to spend money on changing different plane components (like wheels), more often than usual.
Problems on the Otopeni airport trails are neither unknown nor recent. In 2016, exfoliations and protuberances appeared on a recently renewed runway, as a result of some works which didn’t comply with the required level. A revamping process will start on April 12 and will be carried out in several phases so not to affect the airport’s operations.
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