BAPL in talks with Indigo and Spicejet

Kolkata: Bengal Aerotropolis Projects (BAPL) has initiated talks with SpiceJet and Indigo for starting operation at its proposed airport at Andal in the industrial belt of Asansol-Durgapur region of West Bengal, which is expected to be operational by July next year.
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“We had talks with SpiceJet in the last week of April. There was a second round of talks with Indigo also at that time to start operation. The response was reasonably positive,” Subrata Paul, Chief Executive officer (CEO) and director of BAPL said.
BAPL in its proposal also suggested route plans to the airliners. “We have gone with the route plans of our partner Changi Airport Planners and Engineers. There are suggestions of Bagdogra-Durgapur-Delhi and Guwahati-Durgapur-Bangalore flights,” he said. Changi Airport Planners and Engineers is a subsidiary of Changi Airport International which enjoys a 26 per cent stake in BAPL.
Though, nothing has been finalised on this, Paul said, “A low cost airliner will be the first one to start the operation.” It is expecting passenger traffic of about 3.5 lakh in the first year of operation as it is banking on its huge catchment area of Durgapur, Asansol, Dhanbad and Kulti.
“The terminal will have 5 lakh annual passenger capacity. We expect that in 2012-13 the annual traffic will be somewhere around 3.5 lakh. This will increase over the years and the terminal has been designed in a way that the capacity can be increased to about 20 lakhs,” Paul noted.
11/05/11 Business Standard

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Categories: Airports May 2011, Indigo Airlines May 2011, New May 2011, spicejet May 2011