First test flight from Bangalore on March 7

New Delhi/Mumbai: Bangalore's new airport will be ready on March 7 to receive the first commercial test flights. It plans to start commercial operations on March 28 or 30, soon after Hyderabad's new airport does so on 16 March.
Unlike Hyderabad, where only full-service scheduled carriers Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines landed on February 12, low-cost carrier Simplifly Deccan (formerly Air Deccan) will do the honours at Devanahalli.
The airline is also headquartered in the city from where G R Gopinath started the country?s first low-cost carrier operation. When contacted, Gopinath confirmed that the airline would land in the new airport on March 7.
A spokesperson for Bengaluru International Airport Ltd (BIAL), however, merely said the test flights would take place in the first week of March.
Apart from Deccan, Kingfisher Airlines, which has a majority stake in Air Deccan, will also land in the airport on the same day on its maiden test flight to the new airport. However, it is not clear whether Jet Airways will also participate in the test landings.
21/02/08 Surajeet Das Gupta & Manisha Singhal/Business Standard

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Categories: airports Feb 2008, New Feb 2008