In a historic moment for Hyderabad, the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad will receive its first commercial test flights ahead of the start of commercial operations from March 16.

The flights, one each of private full-schedule carriers Kingfisher Airlines (A320) and Jet Airways [Get Quote] (B747) will touch down on South Asia's longest runway -- 4,260 metres -- at 4.15 and 4.20, respectively.

The first commercial airline to take off on midnight of March 15 is reported to be the German carrier Lufthansa.

The new Hyderabad airport has been built by Hyderabad International Airport Limited, a public-private joint venture between GMR Group (63 per cent), Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (11 per cent) and the state government of Andhra Pradesh and Airports Authority of India, which hold 13 per cent each.

The 105,300 square metre terminal, with an initial capacity to handle 12 million passengers a year, is now ready. Eventually, the airport will be close to 900,000 square metres and will be able to handle 50 million passengers.

A single-runway operation for the time being, a second runway is proposed in the next phase. To ensure smooth daily operations, the airport has an airport operations command centre, an altogether new feature in India.

Trial runs for the airport have been on since September 2007. On March 16, over 22 airlines will be flying to and from the airport covering over 35 destinations.

Built at a cost of Rs 2,500 crore (Rs 25 billion) for the first phase over 5,495 acres, this first truly modern and internationally comparable facility in India has a runway with several entry and exit points and four rapid exit taxi-ways to minimise delays that are routine at almost all Indian metro airports.

Several concessionaires tied up by the consortium also promise to improve the airport experience. While flight catering will be done by Lufthansa and Sky Gourmet, food and beverages will be offered by HMSHost, a subsidiary of Autogrill S.p.A of Italy.

Telecom services will be provided by Tata Teleservices [Get Quote]. A 308-room business hotel is being set up by the Accor group. A fuel farm at the airport is expected to be set up by Reliance Industries [Get Quote].

An aircraft MRO is also to be set up within the premises by Lufthansa Technik and Indian Airlines.

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