As the manager of a chunk of the country's airports, state-owned AAI is seeking an expansion in the norms to use its land on the city side of any airport for services that are not aviation-related. As of now, the AAI Act allows an airport operator to use land only for aviation-related services.
In a bid to ease air traffic congestion and ensure safety, government has decided to introduce separate flight corridors for helicopter operations at Delhi and Mumbai airports.
Level 1 of the terminal will house Kingfisher, Air India, Jet Airways and MIAL offices, while Level 2 will be the security-hold area for passengers after checking in at either terminal 1A or 1B.
In the last five years, AAI had developed and upgraded 58 airports, including 35 non-metro airports.
The decision will benefit the under construction airports at Hyderabad and Bangalore and the one already built in Kochi with majority private participation.
The city's 24-hour Air Quality Index, recorded at 4 pm every day, stood at 418, up from 334 the previous day, and it may trigger stringent restrictions under the third stage of the graded response action plan to mitigate hazardous conditions.
AAI holds a minimum of 26 per cent equity in any of the joint venture in the form of assets, and the balance is with private sector/financial institution/state government for city-side development of viable non-metro airports.
no flight will depart or arrive at the Kolkata airport between 9.30 pm of May 3 and 6 pm of May 4
After imposing development fee in four private airports, the government is mulling charging it from passengers departing from another nine airports in the country.
"Had the government agreed to this proposal of the AAI, the (modernisation of) Mumbai and Delhi airports would have been completed by this time," the Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture said in its latest report. While opposing privatisation, the report said the AAI proposal, which promised to revamp the two facilities in a much shorter time, was "turned down for unknown reasons."
Announcing this in New Delhi, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said trial runs on the new third runway of IGI Airport would begin in ten days from now. Once operational, it would go a long way to ease the air traffic congestion over the Delhi airspace. The two airports, as per the recommendations of the respective state governments, would be developed by the state-owned AAI and not privatised.
The grading system would apply to all airports, including under private developers and the Airports Authority of India, Civil Aviation Secretary Ashok Chawla said at a seminar on Wednesday.
The terminal and airside development of as many as nine of the 16 non-metro airports, supposed to be completed by next month, has been delayed till next year. This included construction and expansion of terminal buildings, runways and taxiways, among other things.
Even as the date for the two new state-of-the-art international airports in Bangalore and Hyderabad to start operations comes closer, lobbying to prevent closure of the existing facilities -- at the Airport Authority of India's Begumpet airport in Hyderabad and HAL airport in Bangalore -- has got louder.
The government is expected to firm up, next week, its position on equity participation in two proposed companies for privatisation and modernisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports, official sources said on Friday.\n\n\n\n
The state-owned airport authority is conducting a techno-feasibility study.
The airport has formulated standard operating procedures for post-lockdown safety of the passengers, which include social distancing, stringent thermal screening, positioning temporary quarantine centres and also continues to sanitise and disinfect the airport to ensure safety and well-being of the passengers when operations resume.
The state-owned operator had earlier built airports in Libya and Yemen.
Delhi International Airport Ltd move likely to impact revenue flow to government kitty.
The Communist Party of India on Thursday demanded in the Lok Sabha that the existing airports in Hyderabad and Bangalore should not be closed down to "protect interest of private sector".
Delhi International Airport, a subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure, will absorb all general employees of Airports Authority of India, working at Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi. There are over 2,300 general employees of AAI.
Leading Indian corporates Reliance, Bharti and Videocon along with seven other consortiums entered the race for the modernisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports, bids for which closed on Tuesday.
Paving the way for development of the first-ever 'greenfield airport' in the country, the government signed a concession agreement with Bangalore International Airport Company Ltd for it to come up at Devanahalli in Karnataka over the next 33 months.
Overlooking opposition from the Left parties and airport employees, the government on Tuesday signed two agreements to set up joint venture companies between Airports Authority of India and the GMR and GVK groups.
Heavy rains continued to pound Chennai and nearby districts on Monday under the impact of a cyclonic storm, which is likely to cross the coast in Andhra Pradesh on December 5.
The Union Cabinet on Tuesday gave its approval for private participation in the construction of international airport in Bangalore.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation, which is monitoring individual airports' adherence to safety standards, is in the process of issuing licenses to three airports based on their security compliance.
The high commission of India in Dhaka and the assistant high commissions in Chittagong, Rajshahi, Sylhet and Khulna have been assisting in the voluntary return of Indian nationals, he said.
There are 394 unserved and 16 under-served airports in the country.
Here stood a man who embodied the legacy of whatever Brand Tata stood for, embellished it, and departed into the long night, leaving the brand legacy for others to further enrich, notes R Gopalakrishnan.
Minister of state for aviation Mahesh Sharma said that his ministry has requested the airlines to maintain price cap in this time of crisis.
Hochtief Airport GmbH, which has tied up with Piramal Holdings India Ltd and L&T Holdings in its bid for the airport modernisation process, is interested in developing the Mumbai airport.
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