Airports located high above sea level and their short runways are challenging for airlines. Long runways are needed in hot conditions.
Based on the list, at least the number of flights from London, Scandinavia and Central Europe will increase.
The soon-to-end summer season has been good for the airport. This year, around 900,000 passengers will pass through the small airport, but next year the capacity is to be increased several times.
It is made possible by the expansion work that has just started, which almost doubles the terminal’s facilities. Sözener says that the airlines would like to fly to Gazipaşa with larger planes than before, because the number of tourists coming to Alanya is increasing.
But in the summer, the scorching midday temperature, rising to 40-45 degrees on the surface of the runway, brings challenges.
The runway at Gazipaşa is 2350 meters long. As the weather warms, the air is thinner and produces less lift, so planes need a longer runway. Airlines carefully calculate the performance values \u200b\u200bof their planes.
Airplanes fly due to the lift generated by the wings. Last summer, heat records were set around the world, and heat waves, extreme drought and wildfires affected many countries in Southern Europe, among others.
Night flights to Mediterranean holiday destinations
In Alanya, the airport operates around the clock, and one solution is to move flights to cooler hours of the day, i.e. evenings and nights.
– Airlines don’t want to fly here with wide-body planes at noon because of the hot temperature. But there is no obstacle to this, this is their wish, says operations coordinator Ömer Sözener.
In the Mediterranean region, besides Turkey, especially in Greece, there are several airports characterized by high summer temperatures and short runways. Hot summers may make flying for them more difficult in the future.
– In Lanzarote, for example, the runway is 2,400 meters long, so greater power is needed from the engines and the flanges coming out of the wings have to be used more, says Ilkka Luode.
The flanges make the wing more convex, which makes the plane carry better even at lower speed and makes it easier to lift the plane into the air.
The importance of temperature to flight operations is illustrated by the example of the runway required by a typical narrow-body passenger plane. If 1,980 meters is enough for takeoff at a temperature of 20 degrees, at a temperature of 40 degrees a runway is already 2,500 meters.
Helsinki-Vantaa Airport has three runways, two of which are over three kilometers long.
How hot is too hot for airplanes
In the hot and dry Middle East, airlines already prefer early morning and late evening departures.
– Dubai, for example, has really long runways, and the high temperature has been taken into account there, says Luode.
The length of the runways of the Persian Gulf giants Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi is more than four kilometers.
But even extending the runway is not always enough.
– The next limitation is tire speed in large machines. The machines cannot be driven faster than a certain speed on the runway, because the tires will not last.
Then the only option is to move the takeoff to the night or lighten the plane.
Restrictions have had to be resorted to, for example, at London City Airport during the 2018 heat wave.
Traffic has also had to be restricted in Phoenix, USA, when the temperature has risen to close to 50 degrees in the summer. Such a temperature can already affect the performance of the aircraft, and already exceeds the maximum operating temperature of some types of aircraft.
Airplanes need to be made lighter
Airlines are thinking of ways to lighten their planes in order to reduce fuel consumption. At the same time, it facilitates operation in challenging fields.
The weight of the aircraft is the main factor affecting the performance of the aircraft when it takes off in very hot temperatures.
Pilots calculate the required length of runway for each flight separately, since temperature also affects engine performance ratings, and the weight of planes is also affected by the number of passengers and cargo.
Sometimes there is a situation that, in order to lighten the plane, some of the luggage or passengers will arrive on the next flight. The alternative is not to fill up the machines.
– Lightening the machines is the last option. We would rather make an extra layover than leave passengers or luggage off the board. During the layover, the plane is refueled for the rest of the journey, says Ilkka Luode, head of Norwegian’s Helsinki-Vantaa crew base.
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