The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : New airport will face problems in handling traffic: HAL official

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Sunday, Mar 02, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

New airport will face problems in handling traffic: HAL official

Staff Reporter

‘They can be overcome if expansion plans are implemented at the earliest’

Second runway facing problems following objections by Defence authorities
Air traffic capacity in India low despite having more airspace compared to European countries

Bangalore: The situation at Devanahalli airport will become bad within a year of its opening as it will reach a saturation point as far as its air traffic handling capacity is concerned, according to S.R. Iyer, Deputy General Manager (Airport Operations), Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

Responding to questions from members of the Aeronautical Society of India during a talk on “Airport Services and Trends,” here on Saturday, Mr. Iyer pointed out that the new airport would face difficulties within a year if expansion plans like constructing the second runaway were not implemented at the earliest.

Even the second runway was facing hurdles following objections by the Defence authorities, as the airspace there overlaps that of the Yelahanka airbase of the Indian Air Force, Mr. Iyer pointed out and said that the authorities were unable to arrive at a consensus on the issue even after several rounds of discussions.

While admitting that there was no scope for expansion of airside facilities at HAL airport, Mr. Iyer said the new airport had enough space for such expansion.

Retain old airport

He, however, said keeping open old airports would solve the problems faced by country’s airports which were witnessing an average annual increase of 30 per cent in domestic air passenger traffic and 20 per cent in international traffic.

Having parallel runways, more parallel and rapid exit taxi drives, reforms in rules, upgrading of technology, privatisation of air traffic control facility, adding new airports while retaining the old ones were the need of the hour to overcome problems relating to management of airports in the country, he said.

There was need for a major change in laws and airspace design, Mr. Iyer said, as the air traffic capacity in India was low despite us having more airspace compared to European countries.

He pointed out that about 21,000 flights were being operated in European countries every day as against just 2,500 to 3,000 flights in India.

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