Evaluation of airport runway pavements in relation to increasing airtravel demand in Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh is a developing country and its economy is increasing significantly as well as the air travel demand also increasing rapidly. In 2015, the number of registered carrier departures worldwide from Bangladesh was 32,960 and the quantity for air freight in Bangladesh was 188 million ton-km. With the increasing volume of passengers and goods movement, airlines are introducing wide bodied and new generation aircraft and that also demand for evaluation of airfield pavement. The aims of this study were to determine the air travel demand (passenger, aircraft, and cargo movement) of Bangladesh, to evaluate the airport reference code and runway configuration, and to evaluate the runway pavement of three international airports of Bangladesh. The runway and taxiway configuration was evaluated according to International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) standards. The ACN-PCN (Aircraft Classification Number-Pavement Classification Number) value of the pavements was calculated using FAA COMFAA 3.0 software. According to the findings, HSIA (Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport) meets all the requirements for current design aircaft (ICAO Code 4E). SAIA (Shah Amanat International Airport) and OIA (Osmani International Airport) are showing minor deviations from the requirements of 4E category. The PCN results for HSIA, SAIA, and OIA are 64 F / C/ X / T , 52 F / C / X / T, and 43 F / C / X / T respectively. Existing pavement cannot accommodate Code F aircraft operations for future air traffic demand. Further modifications and improvements of airport runway should be made to accommodate the future air travel demand in Bangladesh. This research can further be extended for the evaluation of runway pavements of domestic airports.