Rutiger wrote:The government should be looking to acquire more land around the airport for less traumatic future airport expansion before the area gets even more heavily developed. Some time in the distant future, the one runway won't be enough to handle the airline traffic. Plus, there is no other landing direction option for differing wind conditions.

vladimir wrote:

Rutiger wrote:The government should be looking to acquire more land around the airport for less traumatic future airport expansion before the area gets even more heavily developed. Some time in the distant future, the one runway won't be enough to handle the airline traffic. Plus, there is no other landing direction option for differing wind conditions.

I don't think the wind is ever really a problem in Phnom Penh.

I also think that most airports in the world only need a runway facing in one direction, since prevailing winds are normally SE or NW for example.

Additional cross runways are merely to handle extra traffic, not for wind direction. Caveat: I THINK.

Bitte_Kein_Lexus wrote:They'll have to build a second airport further out past Camko at some point. But as usual, the clueless officials with no foresight will be 15 years too late.

Bitte_Kein_Lexus wrote:As previously mentioned, that land is already owned and goes for a pretty penny. Considering the fuss people make whenever the government tries to build overpasses/expressways or expand roads and the amount of cash needed to buy all of them out (lots of which is owned by big shots), I doubt that will happen. The time to buy that land was 10 years ago, not now.

A new airport isn't the most cost effective option in the short term, but probably the only one they have. An airport either north or south of the city with an expressway connecting it.

Rutiger wrote:

vladimir wrote:

Rutiger wrote:The government should be looking to acquire more land around the airport for less traumatic future airport expansion before the area gets even more heavily developed. Some time in the distant future, the one runway won't be enough to handle the airline traffic. Plus, there is no other landing direction option for differing wind conditions.

I don't think the wind is ever really a problem in Phnom Penh.

I also think that most airports in the world only need a runway facing in one direction, since prevailing winds are normally SE or NW for example.

Additional cross runways are merely to handle extra traffic, not for wind direction. Caveat: I THINK.

You might be right. The wind thing is very site specific. I see on google earth that most major airports in Europe have all parallel runways, except for Dublin, Rome, Madrid and a few others which still have crossing runways. Cross runway configurations were the standard across the US, except for the coastal airports. Maybe that design has gone out of favor.

bolueeleh wrote: yeah, land and hold short is a bitch

Rutiger wrote:

bolueeleh wrote: yeah, land and hold short is a bitch

No. Only one runway is ever used at one time...not both, which is of course why busy airports use parallel runways instead. But those airports chose pkane volume over safety. Try landing a plan in strong crosswinds. You can go on youtube and see what evasive maneuvring pilots have to do to land in such situations. Scary stuff.