It will be a more comfortable option for Mumbai
which has Ahmedabad as the support airport currently.
In another positive announcement HAL Chairman
RK Tyagi was optimistic that by the next round
of Aero India, some useful solution on opening
the HAL airport again would have been found. He
said that the matter had been already discussed
with the civil aviation authorities, and they
had responded positively to the idea.
Since existing regulations don’t allow two airports
within a distance of 150 km from each other, the
government would work around this, he added. There
is a possibility that Bangalore’s old airport
may again be opened for commercial operations,
mainly for shorthaul passenger flights.
“Nowhere in the world was the existing airport
closed down to make way for a new one,” Tyagi
said. He added that BIAL had reached its peak
annual capacity of 12 million passengers, and
a second airport would not hurt its interests.
|