Move to develop low-cost airports

Hyderabad: Air Deccan, GVK Airports, Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation and Rahejas have formed a consortium to look at opportunities for developing low cost airports in the country.
Speaking on the sidelines of a lecture here on Friday, Air Deccan Managing Director Captain G. R. Gopinath said the consortium would look at opportunities wherever they existed. Stating that there was huge potential in the country, he cited examples of proposed airports at Shimoga and Bijapur (Karnataka) and Nellore and Kadapa (Andra Pradesh).
He recalled that he had suggested in the past at a meeting of the Travel Agents Association that States should develop airports on their own without waiting for the Centre to do so. They should allow private sector to develop the airports if they were not in a position to implement such projects.
Earlier in his lecture on “In pursuit of dreams” at the Indian School of Business, narrated how an idea hit him like a “tsunami” for starting low-cost airlines in the country during a visit to Phoenix, the USA.
A board at the Phoenix airport proclaiming that it handled 100,000 passengers and 1,000 flights a day set him thinking. In India, 40 airports were handling 420 flights a day.
16/09/07 Siasat Daily

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Categories: Air Deccan Sep 2007, Airports Sep 2007, New Sep 2007