BIA buffeted by confusion till the last minute

BIA buffeted by confusion till the last minute
Anshul Dhamija & Saurabh Sinha | TNN



Confusion over the Bengaluru International Airport’s takeoff played out till the last minute on Friday night.
Just hours before Jet Airways flight 9W 477 from Mumbai was to take off to Bangalore, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) told BIA authorities that no commercial flight could land before 00.01 hours on Saturday.
This was in accordance with the directive issued by the Election Commission (EC) to the promoters of the new airport, BIAL, that commercial operations at the airport can start only on May 24.
However, the EC permitted empty flights to land at BIA late on Friday night, hours before the inaugural flight was to land. According to civil aviation ministry sources, the permission came as aircraft had to be stationed in Bangalore for early-morning departures.
“Planes are going to be flying in without passengers, as commercial operation will begin only at 12.05 am on Saturday. These planes will be stationed there for early-morning flights,” said an official.
Within minutes of being alerted, Jet Airways rescheduled all its incoming flights from Mumbai (9W 477), New Delhi (9W 834) and Hyderabad (9W 536) to land at the new airport after 12.01 am on Saturday.
The Jet Airways flight information desk confirmed to TOI the delay in all three flights, citing ‘operational reasons at the new Bengaluru International Airport’.
However, after a few calls and hectic negotiations, BIA got the EC’s permission to allow landing of commercial aircraft on Friday. BIAL’s official spokesperson confirmed the last-minute confusion and said it had been sorted out with the EC and DGCA.
The Jet Airways flight (9W 477) from Mumbai, which was scheduled to be the first to touch down at the swanky new airport at 9.45 pm, lost the opportunity to an Air India flight from Mumbai, which landed at 10.00 pm. Thai Airways, Malaysian Airlines and a Lufthansa freighter aircraft landed at BIA thereafter.
3 airports
to control
traffic
Airlines will fly in and out of BIA thanks to a flexi-use of civil-military airspace. Three air traffic managements — Yelahanka Defence Airbase, HAL airport and BIA — will work together for flight operations. A joint committee comprising technical experts from both, the defence and civil sides, finalized the procedures for this coordination. “The model was finalized by the panel set up in 2005 and is going to be implemented from Friday-Saturday night,’’said an official. The then joint director general of DGCA, Kanu Gohain, who is now the director general, headed the panel.