Diverted plane tests capacity of Tanzania's airport

An Emirates Airbus A380 approaches John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens on August 1, 2008. A rare diversion of an Emirates plane to Julius Nyerere International Airport saw 503 passengers and crew spend a night in Dar es Salaam. FILE PHOTO  

In Summary

• Emirates flight EK 701, destined for Mauritius was diverted to Julius Nyerere International Airport because of inclement weather.
• The aircraft had circled over Mauritius for a while before the crew decided to divert it to Dar es Salaam.
• The ground crew in Dar were overwhelmed and did not even know how to disembark the stranded passengers.

By MICHAEL WAKABI
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The surprise diversion of an Emirates Airbus A380 to Dar es Salaam this week, gave East Africa a real time test of what it takes to handle a commercial flight by a super jumbo.

Emirates flight EK 701, destined for Mauritius Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International, was diverted to Julius Nyerere International Airport because of inclement weather.

According to passengers on the flight, the aircraft had circled over Mauritius for a while before the crew decided to divert it to Dar es Salaam, three hours northwest of its intended destination.

The unexpected arrival of the super jumbo, only the second landing by the type in the wider East African region, focused attention on the region’s aviation infrastructure, with some commentators wondering if Dar es Salaam had the capacity to handle the world’s largest passenger aircraft.

In a tweet, a passenger aboard the flight suggested that the ground crew in Dar es Salaam were overwhelmed and did not even know how to disembark the stranded passengers.

Anticipated drill

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But The EastAfrican has learnt that the rare diversion that saw the 503 passengers and crew spend a night in Dar es Salaam was the culmination of a long anticipated drill by Emirates.

According to a retired Ugandan aviation official, as the Emirates planned to expand its A380 operations into the southern hemisphere, it evaluated a number of African airports for emergency diversions of A380 flights.

The evaluations involved simulated landings and primarily focused on the aeronautical infrastructure at a given airport and its ability to facilitate a safe landing by an A380.

“Whatever the reason, in an emergency, the priority is to get the aircraft safely onto the ground. Other considerations such as logistics are secondary,” said retired pilot Captain Francis Babu.

Entebbe diversion

Emirates assessed Entebbe as a diversion for its A380’s in 2011, and the airport passed. The only limitation is that the aircraft would use only the two inboard engines during the taxi to avoid sucking in grass.

While the Antananarivo Airport in Madagascar and even the Seychelles were closer to Mauritius than Dar es Salaam, Captain Babu says that part of the Indian Ocean is notorious for its stormy weather and the storm cells could have extended to those airports. This left Dar es Salaam as a safe diversion within available range.

“Choosing a diversion airport is a function of safety in terms of how far the aircraft can go in its present state and conditions for landing at the destination airport.

The pilot added that Dar es Salaam could also have been attractive because Emirates already has an office there, which was crucial to handling ground logistics such hotel accommodation and transit visas for the unscheduled passengers.

Although the passengers thought Dar es Salaam could not handle the A380, for it to have a market, the manufacturer designed it to be able to operate without modifications to existing airport infrastructure.

It was designed with many wheels so that its massive weight of 562 tonnes would not require new runways to be built while its wingspan had to fit within existing gates.

Dedicated terminals

Some airports and even airline operators have developed dedicated A380 terminals but these are largely optional and intended for operational efficiency.

With two full length decks, having a capability for simultaneous boarding and disembarkation halves time on the ground from the standard 90 minutes it would take using conventional stairs.

With more than 100 A380s in its fleet, Emirates is the world’s largest A380 operator and is continually developing new routes for the super jumbo.

So far in Africa, the carrier operates the A380 on one of its four daily flights to Johannesburg. The other destination for Emirates A380 is Mauritius.

British Airways and Air France also operate A380’s to Johannesburg. But Emirates A380 flights to Brazil overfly parts of Africa, making diversion airports on the continent a necessity.

Expansion projects

In recent years, East Africa has been expanding its aviation infrastructure to cope with growth in the air transport industry.

While airport terminals have been the main subject of these upgrades, attendant to that has been the incorporation of new technology features to improve security and safety.

Kenya, which opened its new-build Terminal A in 2015 is now building a second runway at the Jomo Kenyatta international Airport.

Rwanda expects the first phase of its greenfield airport at Bugesera to open in December 2019. While not building a completely new airport, Uganda is expanding the passenger and cargo terminals at Entebbe International Airport.

Tanzania is also completing a new passenger terminal. These developments will increase the capacity of region’s airports to handle not just more passengers but more aircraft movements as well.