The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Monday said the new Bangalore airport would open for operations by May end. While the existing HAL airport in the city is likely to close down for commercial air traffic once the new airport opens, officials indicated that talks will continue with BIAL and other stakeholders to examine how it can be kept operational for commercial air traffic.

BIAL will also be charging a User Development Fee (UDF) of Rs 1,075 for all international passengers from Day One of operations. International passengers, in fact, will have to pay the UDF amount in cash initially as airlines will only be able to incorporate it with the ticket amount little later. Domestic passengers will pay UDF three months after operations start. The new airport will open any day after the Karnataka elections end on May 23, officials said.

At a meeting between officials from the ministry, Karnataka Government and the Bangalore International Airport (BIAL), the latter is said to have categorically stated that keeping the two airports open was not a ‘workable’ idea. The BIAL officials carried out a study on the possibility of keeping both airports open and have finally concluded that it would cause a “significant dip in revenue” for them and was therefore “out of the question”.

The high-level meeting was held after Parliamentary Standing Committee chairman and CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury wrote to the Prime Minister demanding that the existing Bangalore airport be also allowed to operate for small aircraft as is done in Dallas, Houston and Newark. The closure of existing airports as agreed upon by the Government in their contractual agreement with private partners developing the two new Greenfield airports at Bangalore and Hyderabad had not gone down well with the Parliamentary Standing Committee. The committee had recommended that the ministry renegotiate with the private partners on this issue.