By Euro Weekly News Media • Published: 10 Sep 2015 • 15:36
Aircraft on runway Malaga Airport
IN a statement issued by USCA – the union for air traffic controllers – on September 10, it was revealed that the second runway at Malaga airport, opened for use in 2012 was used less than one per cent of the time in 2014 and they forecast the same for 2015.
They suggest that this lack of use causes economic losses for the airport and delays passengers, citing the fact that on September 7, during the extremely bad weather, the second runway remained closed and a number of flights were diverted to Granada and Sevilla.
Often, air traffic controllers have been blamed for delays, but the union notes that more and more passengers are now using the airport, so with only one runway in operation they often have to stack incoming planes and outgoing aircraft often have long waits on the tarmac before takeoff.
The runway has been used more extensively in the past but there appears to be no plan in place to cover the situation if the main runway is closed now. Last year on October 25 a problem led to the closure of the main runway and rather than open the second runway, many flights were diverted to other Spanish airports whilst others experienced very long delays.
As the number of passengers wanting to fly to and from Malaga increases, so USCA members want to see a safe and workable plan to allow a more efficient service.
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You’re right, Geoff, that is strange. I also find it strange that there’s only one taxiway to connect the northern runway to the terminal building making it much longer and more difficult for planes to access it. With the road between the runways makes it a challenge to add other access points too. Despite all that it should be very simple for ATC to use one runway for landing and the other for take-offs and schedule them so there’s no conflict.
Roger that’s my problem. here’s the scenario. Aircraft landing on LH runway from the sea. Another aircraft cleared for take off-on the RH runway heading North. The landing aircraft has a problem and initiates a go around normally this is l to climb on runway heading to about 7000 feet. The taking of aircraft and the go around aircraft under certain circumstances, due to the 14 degree convergence of the runways could meet at Cartama mid air collision!!
It’s time someone pointed out the lack of use Flightradar24 has shown only isolated use this year to date What can you expect with 14 degree converging runways Accident waiting to happen I cannot find any other airport in the world with a pair of runways like this
[quote]It’s time someone pointed out the lack of use Flightradar24 has shown only isolated use this year to date What can you expect with 14 degree converging runways Accident waiting to happen I cannot find any other airport in the world with a pair of runways like this[/quote]
Not to sure what 14degreen means .can you explain.
At nearly all airports around the world runways are parallel so you can have arriving and departing flights taking off and landing at the same time without any flightpath conflicts. Malaga is different by having the runways 14 degrees out of parallel so they almost converge at the northwestern end. That means you have a more difficult scheduling problem as the flightpaths could conflict.
After EWN run this article Malaga (AGP) opened the second runway for a short period on Sun. 13th Sept. The runways in use was from the North and from that direction there is no fear of a mid air collision
Roger K, This sadly is another Spanish airport “white elephant” I pointed this out some 2 years or more ago in one of my aviation articles in this very newspaper. If you approach from the north the 2 runway headings are 117 and 131, this is OK as the runways diverge but if you come in from the south then there is a mid air collision, under certain conditions, waiting to happen. If I was offered a 31 approach with 180 people strapped to my back at AGP and both runways were active I just may decline on the grounds that if I did a go around than I could hit the aircraft taking off on my right unless I turned left at the end of the runway which is very poor airman ship.
I totally agree, that’s why the scheduling isn’t straightforward. You can’t clear one to take-off until the landing aircraft is safely on the ground.
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