B’lore’s HAL airport may be used for small aircraft

New Delhi: The old HAL airport in Bangalore may stay open and control some of Banglore’s air traffic. The ministry is said to have suggested to the airport developers, Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), that they should allow aircraft of 80 seats or less to land at the existing HAL airport, in a meeting held on Tuesday between the stakeholders.
The meeting, held by the stakeholders of the new greenfield airport at Devanahalli in Bangalore, was in order to examine the consequences of the High Court’s suggestion to re-examine the concession agreement signed by them. These kind of aircraft including turboprops, ATRs and private and business aircraft constitute around 20% of the aircraft landing at Bangalore and hence a significant amount of revenue that would go to the existing airport rather than the new one.
Last month, minister of civil aviation Praful Patel had said that the existing airport would not be completely shut but would be left open for general aviation.
The decision to leave the airport open was made to appease striking Airports Authority of India (AAI) employees.
30/04/08 Financial Express

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Categories: Airports Apr 2008