Will Mysore Airport pose threat to CBE airport ?
The Mysore airport may be ready for operation next month. But it could be an airport without aircraft landing or taking off. The inauguration inched closer with the Airports Authority of India planning to ask the DGCA to send a team to inspect the site at Mandakalli. Tentatively, the DGCA could visit Mysore in the first week of September.
This comes amid CM B S Yeddyurappa’s Sept 15 deadline for the authorities to complete Phase I and operationalise the airport during Dasara festivities. But airlines are still far from sure of Mysore’s potential. So far, no airline has charted out any flight-path to Mysore.
“The market situation does not make it feasible for us to operate flights to destinations that we are unsure of,” said one airline official. Airline and government sources told TOI that the state government was approaching various airlines and pushing them to start flight operations to Mysore on the opening day. Sources said that the government wants airlines to operate a Bangalore-Mysore flight. Airlines, however, say that such a flight is not feasible. “It is pointless to have a flight from Mysore to Bangalore as the time of travel by air (including the landing and take-off time) will be less than 30 minutes,” said a senior official of a full service airline. It will also take at least one hour to get to the Bangalore airport from the city and passengers would have to arrive one hour before the departure.
But Capt G R Gopinath, seen as the father of low-cost aviation in India, differs. He says a Mysore-Bangalore flight will get enough traffic for an airline to break even. “The current traffic to Nanjangud, Madikeri and Ooty use the Coimbatore airport, which can be now serviced by the Mysore airport. Mysore gets a lot of traffic from Maharashtra and Gujarat.”
This comes amid CM B S Yeddyurappa’s Sept 15 deadline for the authorities to complete Phase I and operationalise the airport during Dasara festivities. But airlines are still far from sure of Mysore’s potential. So far, no airline has charted out any flight-path to Mysore.
“The market situation does not make it feasible for us to operate flights to destinations that we are unsure of,” said one airline official. Airline and government sources told TOI that the state government was approaching various airlines and pushing them to start flight operations to Mysore on the opening day. Sources said that the government wants airlines to operate a Bangalore-Mysore flight. Airlines, however, say that such a flight is not feasible. “It is pointless to have a flight from Mysore to Bangalore as the time of travel by air (including the landing and take-off time) will be less than 30 minutes,” said a senior official of a full service airline. It will also take at least one hour to get to the Bangalore airport from the city and passengers would have to arrive one hour before the departure.
But Capt G R Gopinath, seen as the father of low-cost aviation in India, differs. He says a Mysore-Bangalore flight will get enough traffic for an airline to break even. “The current traffic to Nanjangud, Madikeri and Ooty use the Coimbatore airport, which can be now serviced by the Mysore airport. Mysore gets a lot of traffic from Maharashtra and Gujarat.”
