BENGALURU: With airlines cramming in all their flights within the hours the Bengaluru airport remains open for operations, there were queues stretching up to 1 km in the departure area on Thursday. A few may have missed their flights, too, due to the queues waiting for security clearances.
Kempegowda International Airport has announced the partial closure of operations (between 3 hours and 6 hours per day) from February 8 till February 17 due to the Aero Show 2023 in Yelahanka. The air space is being closed between 9 am and 12 noon and 2 pm and 5 pm from Wednesday to Saturday. Airport operator Bangalore International Airport Limited made the closure timings public on its social media handle on February 6. Irate passengers took to social media to air their grievances over flight cancellations or revised schedules.
Passengers demanded to know why the closure hours could not have been announced earlier by BIAL and sought to know why airlines permitted the booking of tickets during the closed hours.
Bengaluru-based techie Axay Patel tweeted, “Botched up flight schedule again. My flight got cancelled again this year. Why don’t they plan this 3-4 months early?”
GR Aravind tweeted, “Wow, super quick decision and information to public indeed!” Sanjay Kumar Jha put out a photo of the scene inside and tweeted: “More than 1 km long queue at Bangalore airport departure gates due to some crazy reasons!”
Hitesh Gupta, a resident of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, said, “There is a kumbh mela at BLR airport...wondering how many people gonna miss their flight today.”
Prateek Shrivastata tweeted a video of the jampacked queues and captioned it: “Look at the commotion at Bengaluru airport and it’s Thursday morning. So many people will miss their flights. Airport authorities really need to do something here. How about distributing traffic to T2? Any plans?”
BIAL Managing Director and CEO Hari Marar said in a statement, “We have taken a conscious decision to accommodate flights beyond our capacity to ensure that the connectivity of the city isn’t impacted.”
Stressing on the importance of Aero India 2023 for the country, Marar said, “We also understand and recognise the importance of connectivity, and why it cannot be compromised because of air space closure. While we are trying our best to ensure smooth and seamless experience for our customers and passengers at the airport, there will be queues for the time being.”
AERO INDIA: BANDHAN EVENT TO WITNESS INKING OF MAJOR MOUS
Bengaluru: The Bandhan programme, in which Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, CEOs of major private defence companies and CMDs of Defence PSUs will take part, will be held on February 15 at the Air Force Station, Yelahanka, on the sidelines of Aero India 2023. The event will witness the signing of a major MoUs,” a release stated.