Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) on Tuesday told the High Court of Karnataka that it would provide all facilities and infrastructure at HAL Airport if it was allowed to operate domestic or international flights.
Though domestic and international air services have been stopped, HAL Airport has all the infrastructure for operation of the services, said Rajender Sharma, Head, Airport Service Centre, HAL Bangalore Complex, in an affidavit.
The affidavit, on behalf of HAL, was filed before a Division Bench during the hearing of a PIL petition filed by the Airport Authority of India Employees’ Union, which had sought reopening of HAL Airport for commercial operations.
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The affidavit pointed out that HAL had incurred a loss of Rs. 1,480 crore since the closure of the airport, after the new airport opened at Devanahalli in 2008.
Being used only for military flying, test flights, chartered and VVIP flights, the HAL airport continues to operate 24x7 to support these flights without any downgrade in infrastructure and services provided which are now underutilised considering the volume of aircraft movement handled earlier, said HAL’s counsel T. Rajaram. He made it clear that there will not be any hurdle in operating both civil and military aircraft simultaneously.
The airport was closed for commercial civil aviation in view of a clause in the agreement signed between BIAL and the Ministry of Civil Aviation, that said no other civil airport can operate within a 150-km radius of the new airport.