Air Pressure: Temporal Hierarchies in Nepali Aviation

Abstract


 While the aviation industry is dominated by narratives of smooth, unending growth and future planning, in practice it is profoundly striated and asymmetrical. Through an ethnographic study of how air traffic controllers, pilots, and operations staff in Nepal experience “air pressure,” this article demonstrates how understandings of the uneven geography of aviation infrastructure are framed in terms of time. Nepali airports are often perceived as “lagging behind” or “quaint” in comparison to other airports around the world, and air traffic congestion in Nepal can create bottlenecks that in turn have massive implications for the wider system. Yet some kinds of disruption—such as unpredictable weather—reconfigure familiar hierarchies, bringing the value of Nepali aviators’ knowledge of how to manage difficult skies to the forefront of aviation futures. Aviation personnel highlight and expose severe inequalities in global aviation infrastructure systems while also contributing to them in ways that reveal specific ideas about the future of the nation. Unravelling these “tangles of temporalities” may provide a better understanding of how global temporal regimes are harnessed so as to shape lives.
 
 सारांश
 
 उड्डयन उद्योग सहज तथा निरन्तर वृद्धि हुने र भावी योजना बनिरहने क्षेत्र हो भन्ने भाष्य हावी छ, तर व्यवहारमा यो अत्यन्त खण्डित र विषम छ । नेपालका हवाई ट्राफिक नियन्त्रक, विमान चालक, र हवाई सेवा सञ्चालन कर्मचारीहरूले कसरी “हवाई चाप” लाई अनुभव गर्छन् भन्ने विषयको एथ्नोग्राफिक अध्ययनको आधारमा यो लेखले उड्डयन पूर्वाधारको असमान धरातललाई कसरी कालिक ढाँचामा बुझ्ने गरिन्छ भन्ने देखाउन खोजेको छ । विश्वका अरू विमानस्थलहरूको तुलनामा नेपालका विमानस्थलहरू “पिछडिएका” र “विचित्रका” मानिए पनि, नेपालमा हवाई ट्राफिकको घुइँचोले विभिन्न अवरोधहरू सिर्जना गर्न सक्छन्, जसले सिङ्गो प्रणालीमा बृहत् प्रभाव पार्न सक्ने कुराको सङ्केत गर्छ । अप्रत्याशित मौसम परिवर्तन जस्ता केही अवरोधले उड्डयन उद्योगमा विद्यमान श्रेणीयताहरू (हायरार्की) को पुनर्विन्यास गरिदिन्छन्, जसले नेपाली उड्डयन कर्मचारीहरूले विषम परिस्थितिमा गर्दै आएको हवाई ट्राफिक व्यवस्थापनको ज्ञानको महत्त्वलाई उड्डयन भविष्य बजारको अग्रपङ्तिमा ल्याइदिन्छ । उड्डयन कर्मचारीहरूले वैश्विक उड्डयन पूर्वाधार प्रणालीहरूमा रहेका गम्भीर असमानताहरू झल्काउनका साथै ती असमानताहरू सिर्जना गर्नमा पनि योगदान गर्छन्, र राष्ट्रको भविष्य बारेका निश्चित विचारहरूलाई उद्घाटित गर्छन् । यी “कालिकताहरूका गुजुल्टा” को फुकाइले कसरी जनजीवनलाई प्रभाव पार्न वैश्विक कालिक व्यवस्थालाई उपयोगमा ल्याइन्छ भन्ने बारे अझ राम्ररी बुझ्न मद्दत गर्न सक्छ ।

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