Monday, October 24, 2011

Open Skies?


Neelam Mathews
Oct 24, 2011

With the first decade of the 21st century behind us, India is still grappling with holding tight to its 20th century thinking.

While I have no affinity to any carrier of any nation personally, the fact that even Hyderabad airport has shown it can handle the Airbus A-380 successfully, gives us reason to stop protecting the national carrier at the cost of Indian citizens’ convenience.

Besides, business might just get better if more capacity is allowed in.

An Emirates A-380 flying from Bangkok to Dubai
was diverted to Hyderabad, due to technical reasons, and landed at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad- that is Code F compliant-  in the early hours of 23rd October due to technical snag in the aircraft.

At RGIA, the Airport Rescue Fire Fighters(ARFF) upgraded from CAT-9 to CAT-10 category to ensure safe landing of the aircraft. RGIA is compliant to handle Code-F aircraft movements.

Interestingly, for the third time an Airbus A-380 landed at Hyderabad Airport within a span of 3 years- the first was a ferry flight in October 2008, then in June 2011, a commercial aircraft, EK-413 flying from Sydney to Dubai landed for a medical emergency and now EK 385.

India’s geographic strategic position can hardly be ignored.

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