BIAL and HAL airport
HAL airport was never meant to be a commercial airport, it is exclusively meant for the aircrafts test and landing for HAL. In old days, Packet Aircraft or DC-3 by the military used to land. Gnats, HF-24 tests were conducted at the HAL airport. One of these crafts tested by Wing Commander Suranjan Das failed to lift of at the end of the runway and crashed somewhere near varthur lake. The current runways are clogged holding up test of LCA craft and others.
Commercial aviation of Indian Airlines a GOI org. was allowed into the mix and provided a revenue stream for the upkeep. However HAL was not meant to be an airport for mass commercial air traffic and it shows even today by the meagre facilities. Now wanting commercial option based on local people needs is highly untenable based on the original concept of dedicated runway for Aircraft testing. Either we move HAL to the outskirts of the city, which is an enormous costs and use the current HAL for say private jet operators (not commercial airlines) or we convert HAL's existing infra for the industrial - military testing which was its original intent.
Dear
BIAL is going to be the main airport in Bangalore in coming years and will handle majority of civilian air traffic. Does that mean HAL airport can be easily disposed off?
Yes, there are constraints in HAL airport as it is handling stunningly more passengers (around 13 million passengers 2007-08 as per DH article pasted below) than it is intended to. Please understand that HAL airport is not a cheaply setup temporary type terminal like there in some unknown islands to be replaced by BIAL but terminals and runways at HAL were upgraded constantly over the past years with Government pumping in crores of rupees. A few things about HAL airport.
- It is the fourth busiest airport in India.
- The airport was built in the 1940s to supplement military operations of the allied forces during the World War-II.
- In the past decade, the airport has gone through a series of expansions and upgradations to keep pace with the growing civilian air traffic in the city.
- The airport runway can handle big aircrafts like B747s.
- There are separate check in sections for domestic and international departures, and separate sections for domestic and international arrivals. The airport has 2 aerobridges.
-HAL Airport is relatively close to the city centre (12 km). A taxi ride from the airport to the city centre, in peak hour traffic takes between 1/2 - 1 hour.
- And many more.
Now the question is , after all these investments in HAL airport for civilian operations, what is Government and HAL airport going to do with all these added facilities if forced to shut down? Is it that the Government can throw all those crores of investments in HAL as scrap?? For running test flights and private aircrafts, you may not need such big terminals and runway as there in HAL airport now. So, who will bear this huge loss by forcing shutdown on HAL airport?
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Please also look into this article published in Deccan Herald on March 9, 2008.
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Mar92008/editpage2008030856301.asp
HAL airport must be run for five years
By Tulsi Kesharwani
The option is to either face congestion at the new airport or avoid such congestion by using the capacity already available at the existing airport.
A new greenfield international airport at Bangalore is scheduled for opening later this month. Under the agreement between BIAL and the government of India the existing airport will be closed and all the traffic will be transferred to the new airport.
The new airport will have an annual capacity of about 10.3 million passengers including 1.6 international passengers and 8.7 million domestic passengers. The actual traffic at the existing airport from April to December 1997 was 9.93 million passengers including 1.52 million international and 8.41 million domestic. The growth in traffic during first nine months of 2007-08 was 33.7 per cent over the corresponding period of 2006-07, which was the highest recorded by any international airport in India. If the same growth rate is maintained from January to March 2008, the total traffic during 2007-08 will amount to 13.27 million passengers including 1.98 international and 11.29 domestic. The utilisation will be 124 per cent of the international part of the terminal and 130 per cent of the domestic part of the passenger terminal.
Thus, both the international and the domestic parts of the passenger terminal will face congestion on the day of opening the new airport. The congestion will increase as the traffic grows further. Additional capacity can be built but it will take a few years and till then the new airport will face increasing congestion.
The above described traffic situation raises a serious question whether it will be prudent to close the existing airport. For an airport policy maker and planner the answer should be no. It is appreciated that operating two airports in a city has problems of transfer traffic and some airlines duplicating the facilities and incurring additional costs. The options at Bangalore are either face congestion at the new airport or avoid such congestion by using the capacity already available at the existing airport without any additional investment. The situation at Bangalore is different from the proposed second airports at Delhi and Mumbai where additional investments are required on new airports. It may be mentioned that several cities in the world have two or more airports and there is no serious conflict in operating and managing them.
There can be several options for sharing the traffic between the two airports. The best option will be retaining the operation of low cost carriers at the existing airport. This option will create least problems. Another aspect to be considered is that with the opening of the new airport the low cost carriers and their users, especially for short haul routes, are threatened because of two reasons. The new airport at Bangalore is located at a distance of about 35 kms from the city. The travel to the new airport will take more than an hour and reduce the time advantage of air travel over surface modes of transport.
Moreover, the additional cost of travel from and to the airport and the proposed User Development Fee at the new airport will add another element of cost. It is possible some low cost carrier traffic, especially short distance traffic, may get diverted to surface mode of transport. On top of these factors, the recent reduction in tariffs for competing upper class rail travel and possibility of additional surcharges on air travel due to increasing fuel prices will add impetus for diversion of low cost carrier traffic to surface modes. Permitting low cost carriers to operate from the existing airport will mitigate some of the disadvantages, apart from providing immediate relief to the new airport.
The main hurdle in keeping the existing HAL airport operational after the opening of the new airport is the agreement signed between BIAL and the government which bars this possibility. There is reluctance on the part of BIAL to make any change in the agreement because of loss of traffic and revenues. It should be possible to overcome this hurdle by renegotiating the agreement and compensating BIAL for their revenue loss. Retaining low cost carriers at the existing airport will minimize the loss to BIAL as presently 80-seater aircraft do not pay any landing charges. The least that should be done in the present circumstances is to continue the existing airport along with the new one for the next five years or so till sufficient capacity is developed at the new site and surface modes of transport are improved.
The writer has worked as consultant to International Civil Aviation Organisation in over 30 countries and is presently Director (Aviation), Asian Institute of Transport Development, New Delhi.