New Bangalore international airport to commence operns by May-end

NEW DELHI: The new international airport at Bangalore will commence operations by the end of this month, the government announced today as questions remained whether the old HAL airport will be closed for commercial flights.
A meeting convened by the Civil Aviation Ministry in which top officials of the Bangalore International Airport (BIAL) as well as those from the Karnataka government participated took the decision for the launch. An operator's licence is to be issued to BIAL in the next 2-3 days.
The meeting came in the backdrop of a letter from Parliamentary Standing Committee Chairman Sitaram Yechury to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding that the existing HAL airport be kept open for small aircraft operations like it was done in major US cities like Dallas, Houston and Newark.
Announcing that the new airport would start functioning by "this month-end", Civil Aviation Secretary Ashok Chawla said BIAL was "not agreeable to keep the existing airport open" as this was not in the contract.
13/05/08 PTI/Economic Times

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Categories: Airports May 2008, New May 2008