Chennai: Airports Authority of India's plans to expand the Chennai airport have nosedived due to major infrastructural problems.
With the facility's secondary runway yet to open for full-fledged operations and interminable delays in the launch of a new international arrival terminal, airport officials had to deny airlines no less than 10 slots for flights (five for landing and five for take-off) when airlines applied for schedules this year.
These setbacks have resulted in airport operator AII's complete capitulation to high-flying private airports like Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport and Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, greenfield facilities expanding at great speed and reporting spectacular year-on-year growth in traffic.
Consider this: The Chennai airport posted a combined domestic and international passenger traffic growth of 7.9% from April to October last year, a period during which Bengaluru recorded a 24% growth in traffic.
04/01/16 V Ayyappan/Times of India
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With the facility's secondary runway yet to open for full-fledged operations and interminable delays in the launch of a new international arrival terminal, airport officials had to deny airlines no less than 10 slots for flights (five for landing and five for take-off) when airlines applied for schedules this year.
These setbacks have resulted in airport operator AII's complete capitulation to high-flying private airports like Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport and Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, greenfield facilities expanding at great speed and reporting spectacular year-on-year growth in traffic.
Consider this: The Chennai airport posted a combined domestic and international passenger traffic growth of 7.9% from April to October last year, a period during which Bengaluru recorded a 24% growth in traffic.
04/01/16 V Ayyappan/Times of India
