Palace takes wing, India waits

New Delhi: India will be ready to welcome the Airbus A380 from next year if any foreign airline is willing to fly the world’s biggest passenger plane to this country.
No Indian airport is yet capable of handling the superjumbo although a display A380 was flown to Delhi and Mumbai earlier this year.
“Hyderabad will be the first Indian airport capable of commercially receiving A380s by March next year,” said Arun Arora, spokesperson for Delhi international airport.
Bangalore is next in the line, followed by Delhi. The Calcutta and Chennai airports, which are being modernised, can follow suit if they widen their runways and build double-decker aerobridges.
If foreign airlines decide that their Indian routes do not need the luxury aircraft, the country may have to wait four years. Kingfisher is expected to get by 2011 the first of the five A380s it has ordered and hopes to fly on European and US routes.
Air India, too, is considering buying 10 of the Rs 1,267-crore planes for congested routes like Mumbai-New York, where it already flies three aircraft daily. A committee will hand in its report by the end of November.
Even if Air India made up its mind today, no A380s would be available before 2011 – the company already has 165 orders from international carriers.
25/10/07 Jayanta Roy Chowdhury/The Telegraph

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Foreign Oct 2007, New Oct 2007