Why is there so much hatred. Are we really Indians discussing on this forum. It is indeed painful to see the country being torn by language and fantical barriers. What a pitiful state of affairs. What is the use of fighting on these forums. All u are doing is wating your energies and creating unnecessary animosity among your brethen. Please stop fighting and pointing fingers at different towns, cities and states. let the local people and administration fight it out, cos they are the best judge to see what's happening to them in the day to day lives. The others if you can't support, don't start critisizing and/or discouraging, demeaning every new development which might be taking place for the betterment of the country.In the Long run the BIAL airport might be a better solution. Hopefully the State Govt. politicians wake up out of their slumber, move their butts out of their stinking rich homes built with money laundered out of the poor, state machinery and in the form of kick-backs. I am also sure that the people of Bangalore will also wake up and revolt against these useless morons who need to be taught a lesson and reminded that their job is Praja Seva. Change is always tough. A change with poor planning is disastrous. So let the people of Bangalore and other travellers to bangalore work together for a smarter, more viable solution until the proper infrastructure is in place. The HAL can in the meantime serve as a dom. airport alleviating the pain of passengers.
RE:Need to retain HAL
by philip thomas on Feb 28, 2008 01:27 PM
Sure. But Southwest Airlines still defied them and continued to operate point to point flghts from Love Field and became the world's greatest low cost carrier to this day. That's what India needs. Affordable airlines and affordable airports. Not luxury liners and Taj Mahals
let alone the issues listed above, even with the world's best facilities provided if the mentality of the immigration, customs and baggage staff doesn't change then all the money and efforts in building such a state of the art airport will go down drains. The current Bangalore airport staff is highly unprofessional and treat customers like sheep. They have no courtesy to deal with air travellers. Their language and body language is worse than what you see in Majestic bus stand from our road transport staff. Can the authorities look at training the new airport staff with minimum customer service stuff?
One syndrome we find in greenfield airports that are under pressure to let an old airport stay open is big talk about how the new one will soon be expanded and another runway added etc etc. This is also found in the privatised Delhi airport which sees a threat from a new airport mooted for NOIDA. This is called vapourware. In the case of BIAL we now find that Defence Ministry after giving clearance years ago is now objecting to plans for a second runway saying it will interfere with its base in Yelahanka. Hence there is a demand to relocate the second runway. So we can surmise that expansion plans will be tied up in knots. And Bangalore will fall far behind in the airport sweepstakes. It is time there was a Parliamentary review of air bases near the metros to see which of them serves little military purpose and can be closed (thus saving on defence budget expenditure) or re-configured as civil enclaves to enable low cost carriers to operate even if they are a bit distant from the city centre. The latter should not have training flights which block airline slots. Thought should be given to centralise flight training in select locations far from busy cities though there may be a problem posed by the great disparity in aircraft types used by the military.
A relevant exmple is of Dallas-Fort Worth international airport commissioned in the 1960s. Airlines were ordered to relocate to it. But one new airline, Southwest, with three planes stuck it out at Love Field Dallas and grew into the iconic low cost carrier. When Hong Kong's new airport was planned the access to it was simultaneously engineered. So there were no problems on closing the old airport. In Montreal Canada a new airport was built but airlines preferred to use the old one so the former became a white elephant. Thus there is a need for a regulated approach to a two airport system. They must complement each other not be susbtitutes or cut throat competitors. Competition should be between airport systems (Bangalore vs Hyderabad) not within a multi-airport system (say Bangalore) even if ownership is in different hands. The key is to assign roles which can change gradually i.e. over a decade or so. It makes no sense to brag about adding new airport capacity in the country if huge chunks are closed down at the same time. And these supposedly suddenly shabby ones are perfectly OK for VIPs! Here in Goa we see the problems of Bangalore and Hyderabad and say "There but for the grace of God goes Goa". In a pre-emptive strike the Union Cabinet resolved to close down the civil enclave at central Dabolim when a new airport came up in faraway Mopa, with no access to speak of. Political opposition stalled this move. The same problem is likely at Pune, Agra and other civil encls.
Its the problem with JDS govt..they did not give any importance to the blore infrastructure..they always say that they are fighting for the farmers and the poor..but they did not do any thing to the farmers, poor nor to the city.. they just kept on backing up with the NICE road, which actually can serve as a good purpose for a good number of people.. but they just stopped it by going to the court and they never concentrated on the road connectivity for the new aiport.. its all becoz of their lazyness..
After having read Albert Brunner's statement, I am sorry to say that he has lost credibility. Why does he point out Munich and Hong Kong? Why not NYC which has 3 airports right around each other? What is wrong in having two airports in the first place?
On another note this is really amazing but true!
The new airport is spacious, can accommodate more flights, has state-of-the-art facilities, but people are worried about the distance of the airport from the city. Picture this -- travel for nearly three hours to the new airport, which has a two hour check-in for domestic flights for a flight to Hyderabad or Chennai to cover that distance in just around 45 minutes! Sounds strange, but this is true.
This should probably be in Guinness records or something! For a 45 min journey to HYD, there is a 5 HOUR Wait!
First some facts. Hong Kong does not have two airports, only one -- Chek Lap Kok. The old one closed. New York has three primary airports. They go back for decades. And the best part is they are only 15-30 km apart, not 150 km as BIAL and HIAL managed to get. The airport closure rule and the UDF may be intended to ensure that the promoters dont lose out because of the serious access problem. The new airport could have become a white elephant from the word go. The traffic forecast may have been deliberately understated to justify the concessions. How can a consultant like Lufthansa goof up so badly? HAL is supposed to be used for MRO and VIP flights (besides HAL's own test flights). MRO is going to be a losing proposition because of tax anomalies. VIP flights will involve small charter planes between HAL and BIAL! (IT execs pls note). Bangkok's old airport had to be reopened because of major inadequacies with the new one. The alternative would have been to keep HAL open and start BIAL small and grow in a calibrated way to have a two airport "system". Which promoter would agree to this? They all want to make a quick buck. But the present approach only results in civil enclaves closing and reverting to the military. This raises the cost of air travel. The civil aviation ministry just does not have the aam aadmi of the air in mind. If it prevailed on the finance ministry to get ATF deemed as declared good, half the airlines losses would be offset. Its all one big mess. That'
Ohh thats why in one term you elect Jayalalitha and in next tem u elect Karunanidhe and again in next election Jayalalitha 10. M. Karunanidhi 1989 - 1991 President's rule Jan 1991 June 1991 11 J. Jayalalithaa 1991 1996 12 M. Karunanidhi 1996 2001 J. Jayalalithaa 2001 2001 13 O. Panneerselvam 2001 2002 14 J. Jayalalithaa 2002 2006 15 M. Karunanidhi 2006
RE:The people of karnataka should learn from the People of Chennai & Hydbd to vote for stable & powerful govts
by Vasantgopal on Feb 27, 2008 09:16 PM
Irrelevant to the topic here....and by your logic Mr. Marathikar even Indian govt GoI is not stable as we have never had a party retain power in the last 25 years!
