Open Skies?
Neelam Mathews Oct 24, 2011 With the first decade of the 21 st century behind us, India is still grappling with holding tight to its 20 th 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-38...