Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Domestic flights by october!

A population of less that seven hundred thousand with probably less than 5% of the population able to afford flight tickets and, of this 5%, 80% will probably never have the urgency for a immediate flight into the East. And for the 20% requiring urgent travel to the east sometimes, they will probably not be able to wait for the schedule of flights which I am guessing might be twice a week at the most.

The plan is to rehabilitate the existing Yonphula airport. Any airport will require minimum infrastructure to ensure safety. What we will have is another full group of people almost as many as in the Paro airport idling away their office time. This is probably in line with the employment generation policy of the government, but the big question is AT WHAT COST? Huge number of airport staff, fire safety personnel, fire vehicles, revenue and customs personnel, aircraft monitoring and safety staff etc etc.

Considering our small population and smaller number of people who can afford air travel, limited area available for runway, weather conditions, people traveling at the end of the day on domestic flights would probably be Director level ( and above) on government budget,/ probably MP's too etc. etc, which is added burden to our limited treasury funds.
I think the way forward should be with helicopters. Easier and less complicated to maintain, for its agility given our weather conditions and terrain, lesser capacity in line with projected few number of people traveling by air, lesser landing and taking off space requirement etc etc.
More than the domestic flight services whether airplane /helicopter services which would benefit the few elite in our society, I would like to see road expansions, proper maintenance of existing roads and better public transportation facilities instead to benefit the society at large.

1 comment:

  1. A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving. Flights to Lagos

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