Minor irritants mar first day of Hyderabad's new airport

Hyderabad: Unwanted landing, bad weather and a huge crowd marked the launch of the commercial operations of the new Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Hyderabad on Saturday night.
A Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt was scheduled to be the first flight marking the beginning of commercial operations at the airport, but a SpiceJet aircraft, coming from Ahmedabad, made a surprise request to land at the airport in less than a minute after it was officially opened.
The officials had no choice, but to allow the landing. However, the passengers of this flight were completely ignored.
About 18 minutes later, Lufthansa's flight landed and it was given a royal welcome. The passengers, too, were impressed with the airport although they had some complaints.
"Luggage was not coming. The conveyor belt stopped a couple of times," an angry passenger said.
GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL) officials say that the shifting of operations from the Begumpet airport to the new one at Shamshabad was smooth.
But within three hours of the launch of the commercial operations, the airport authorities had to face the ire of the public. A KLM flight from Amsterdam was scheduled to land at the airport at 0145 hours IST. But due to bad weather, the pilot could not locate the airport and diverted the flight towards Delhi.
23/03/08 Shaik Ahmed Ali/CNN-IBN

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Categories: Airports Mar 2008, New Mar 2008