No second airport, asserts BIAL

New Delhi: Even as the cry for a second commercial airport for Bangalore is growing, the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) has sought to quash the demand citing an agreement among its stakeholders.
Making no bones about the increasing demand, mainly from different airlines, the BIAL said in no uncertain terms that a second airport would not be allowed by it.
Speaking to Deccan Herald on Thursday, BIAL CEO Albert Brunner clarified: “No new or existing airport will be permitted to operate as a domestic or international airport within 150 km (from the upcoming international airport at Devanahalli).”
Essentially, that is what the concession agreement (CA) signed among the consortium led by Siemens, Union government and Karnataka government has said.
The demand from the airlines — it was given voice to by Kingfisher Airlines boss Vijay Mallya here last week — is that the existing HAL airport should be allowed to continue because of the increasing passenger traffic.
Responding to this demand, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has said that he was open for a second airport in big cities. He, however, has noted that the CA will have to be looked into to see whether a second airport can be allowed.
04/05/07 B S Arun/Deccan Herald

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Categories: Airports May 2007, New May 2007