HAL airport may reopen to take burden off BIA

Bangalore: The probability of the old HAL airport being reopened for commercial operations is rising. Now, the ministry of civil aviation (MoCA) is now pushing this idea. Top civil aviation ministry officials told TOI that the MoCA has held a series of discussions to reopen HAL airport, given that the new Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) is saturated.
"If needed, we, together with the other promoters of BIA, will relook at the concessions agreement," said the official who requested anonymity. The MoCA, he said, has endorsed the Airports Authority of India (AAI) report on BIA, which states that the airport had reached full capacity the moment it opened. MoCA is also pushing BIA for an immediate capacity expansion.
In June, MoCA had designated a 4-member team from AAI to study the capacity issues at BIA. As per the report, a copy of which is with TOI, the terminal at BIA can only handle 9.78 million passengers as against the city's reported passenger traffic of 10.12 million passengers in 2007-08.
The ministry is looking at re-opening HAL airport to all domestic operations - both long-haul and short-haul. A new terminal block at BIA would take anywhere between 18 and 24 months to build.
21/08/08 Anshul Dhamija/Times of India

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

Categories: Airports Aug 2008