No second airport, asserts BIAL

No second airport, asserts BIAL
From B S Arun DH News Service New Delhi:
The demand from sevearal quarters for a second airport at Bangalore may not materialise as the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL)said that such an idea violates the concession agreement (CA).

Even as the cry for a second commercial airport for Bangalore is growing, the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) has sought to quash the demand citing an agreement among its stakeholders.

Making no bones about the increasing demand, mainly from different airlines, the BIAL said in no uncertain terms that a second airport would not be allowed by it.

Speaking to Deccan Herald on Thursday, BIAL CEO Albert Brunner clarified: “No new or existing airport will be permitted to operate as a domestic or international airport within 150 km (from the upcoming international airport at Devanahalli).”

Essentially, that is what the concession agreement (CA) signed among the consortium led by Siemens, Union government and Karnataka government has said. Asked whether it was willing to revisit the CA since there was a growing demand for a second airport in view of the rising air passenger traffic in Bangalore, Mr Brunner asserted: “We are reiterating that based on the CA, the Government of India has granted the exclusive right and privilege to the BIAL to carry out the development, design, financing, construction, operation and management of the airport for a period of 30 years from the opening date, with an option to extend the concession for another 30 years.”

The airport will be capable of handling a passenger capacity of about 11.4 million when it is thrown open in 11 months’ time, up from the earlier planned 4.5 m. The demand from the airlines — it was given voice to by Kingfisher Airlines boss Vijay Mallya here last week — is that the existing HAL airport should be allowed to continue because of the increasing passenger traffic.

Responding to this demand, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has said that he was open for a second airport in big cities. He, however, has noted that the CA will have to be looked into to see whether a second airport can be allowed.

As for Delhi and Mumbai, the ministry has begun work on a second airport.

A second airport for these two metros is possible because the contractual obligations do not disallow an additional aerodrome except that the operator of the first will have the first right of refusal for the second facility.

The Bangalore HAL airport is already chocked as the authorities have refused to allow new slots during peak hours. The airport, according to the latest figures available with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) here, handled 8,565 aircraft movements (both domestic and international) in February, 2007 compared to 6,409 the same month a year ago, registering a rise of 33.6 per cent.



Growth

It handled 7,51,213 and 5,47,173 passengers in February, 2007 and February, 2006 respectively, registering an increase of 37.3 per cent, showing the kind of growth Bangalore is witnessing. It handled 7.35 million passengers between April, 2006 and February, 2007 compared to 5.11 m between April, 2005 and February, 2006 — a whopping increase of 43.8 per cent.

The AAI officials say that the speed of this growth may go further up with the commissioning of the international airport as it can accommodate more domestic and international flights and passengers.