old Hyd airport can be used for chartered flights: GMR counsel

HYDERABAD: In an argument in the AP High Court, GMR’s lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi conceded that Begumpet could be used for chartered flights.

After the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi formally inaugurated the facility spread across 5,500 acres on the outskirts of the city on March 14, the commercial operations were expected to start from the midnight of March 15.

However, the ministry had postponed the commercial launch due to "operational reasons".

Subsequently, the airlines had come out in the open opposing certain charges including the ground handling charges being levied on them at the new airport.

GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL), which has developed the airport, had awarded the ground handling contracts to two consortia and the issue of ground handling charges too was left to the consortia to finalise.

Private airlines have been claiming that the exorbitant ground handling charges would make the operations of airlines particularly for low cost carriers unviable pushing them into the red.

"The issue (of ground handling charges) has been amicably solved by both the parties," GHIAL’s CFO Rajgopal Swami told TOI without disclosing the details of the resolution.

However, sources in know of the negotiations told TOI that the ground handlers had agreed to reduce the charges to "a certain level". "It’s a pleasant surprise for the airlines," the source said.

TOI