The opening of Bangalore’s new airport looks set to be delayed further as talks continue between the private company that built it and the Government over the future of the Indian city’s existing airport.

Original plans called for the new airport to open on 30 March but the Government announced in mid-March that it had asked for this to be delayed to at least 11 May, following a strike by employees of state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI).

An 11 May opening now also looks unlikely to get government approval, however, as the Civil Aviation Ministry is trying to negotiate a deal with the consortium behind the new airport to allow for the existing state-run airport to remain open in some form.

AAI employees are upset that the existing airport is due to close once the new facility opens and the issue has turned to the courts, which recently asked the Government and the consortium to enter into discussions on possible changes to the concession agreement. <P

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 2:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.