Hyderabad, Bangalore ready for 2008 commercial operations

Hyderabad/Bangalore: GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHAIL), the company building the new international airport in Hyderabad, is in talks with 15 foreign airlines including British Airways and Saudi Arabian Airlines, to operate direct flights from West Asia and Europe to the southern city.
The new airport, to begin commercial operations in March 2008, also aims to be a transit hub for flights connecting Europe with Southeast Asian countries. Currently, 12 carriers, including KLM Royal Dutch Airways, Malaysian Airlines and Qatar Airways, connect cities such as Kuala Lumpur and Doha to Hyderabad.
The GMR airport will become operational a month ahead of the new international airport at Devanahalli on the outskirts of Bangalore, being built by Bangalore International Airport Ltd, a holding company of a consortium of Siemens Projects Ventures; a German Infrastructure company; Larsen & Toubro, India’s largest engineering company; Zurich Airport; AAI and the Karnataka government. The project will cost Rs1930 crore.
Analysts forecast that the new airports will spur economic growth in the two technology hubs as they are linked with direct flights to global cities, and are years away from fighting each other for market share.
Both the airports are planning maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities to help airlines service their aircraft.
The Hyderabad airport has seen a 69% progress in work. In Bangalore, the completion of the roof on the passenger terminal building on Tuesday signified a two-thirds progress.
10/05/07 C.R. Sukumar and K. Raghu/Livemint

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Categories: Airports May 2007, New May 2007